Et Cetera

Database: The AARP Livability Index

Image courtesy AARP.

AARP has updated its interactive online database that scores the services and amenities of U.S. cities on seven livability categories — housing, neighborhood, transportation, environment, health, engagement, and opportunity — and how they support residents of all ages, incomes, and abilities. Using more than 50 national sources of data, the AARP Livability Index can drill down to the address level, then zoom back out to measure an entire county, providing a detailed picture of how well a community meets the current and future needs of everyone who lives in it.

With June's update, the index now includes new and revised data, features, and additional resources to help community leaders identify where gaps exist and create strategies to solve the challenges they are facing.

To learn more — and to see how your neighborhood measures up — go to aarp.Org/livabilityindex.

Film: The Experimental City

Image courtesy The Experimental City.

The latest documentary from director Chad Freidrich revives the story of the Minnesota Experimental City. The MXC, similar to Radiant City by Le Corbusier, was designed by Athelstan Spilhaus in the 1970s to solve the complex problem of population growth. His idea was to create an entirely new city 150 miles from the Twin Cities metro area with underground "utilidors," which would free pedestrians from traffic above, and a dense urban core surrounded by nature. The documentary follows the program through its inception, from receiving thousands of federal dollars for research to its ultimate demise and defunding after residents living near the project site protested its construction.

Still, all was not lost. Many of Spilhaus's ideas have come to fruition today, including teleworking, autonomous vehicles, and online shopping. To find upcoming screenings and watch the trailer, visit mxcfilm.com.

— Stephanie Rouse, AICP

Rouse is a planner for the city of Minneapolis and the metro area director of APA Minnesota.

Design: Rendering Resources

These organizations urge planners to envision more inclusive projects by offering rendering figures of all genders, races, and abilities — largely for free.

NONSCANDINAVIA (www.nonscandinavia.com/) was created by Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation students to improve rendering representation. The opensource collection offers options like stylistically modified cutouts (right) that comply with fair-use laws.

Architecture People is a no-frills, searchable image library with a variety of characters doing a variety of things. At architecturepeople.com, purchase the entire pack of high-resolution PNG files for commercial use or download a free individual image (right) for educational projects.

Diaz Paunetto Arquitectos (diazpaunetto.com/people_png_cutouts.aspx) is a Puerto Ricobased architecture firm with a collection of free online tools, including diverse cutouts in PNG and PSD formats.

Cutout Life offers free figures and a tagging system organized by the image's country of origin. Users can also submit characters for inclusion at cutoutlife.com.

just not the same (justnotthesame.us) serves up its collection of cutouts with a manifesto: "This is part of an effort to reveal the true modes and actions that are at play in the world around us, to reclaim digital and visual space as a multicolored manifestation of reality and thereby place a diversity of faces, bodies, and individuals at the forefront of our collective imagined future." While lowresolution versions are provided for free, five different high-quality packages grouped by origin location are also available for purchase, starting at $10.

Et Cetera is a curated collection of planning odds and ends. Please send information to Lindsay R. Nieman, Planning's assistant editor, at lnieman@planning.org.