[URBAN NOTE] Four city links: planning, luxury retailers, churches, Sky City and China

[rfmcdonald]

• Crooked Timber has a fascinating discussion, derived from a Financial Times Jarrett Walker interview, talking about city planning and making the city work for everyone.
  
• The cities of Canada, due to their size and growing wealth, are starting to attract substantial numbers of luxury retailers. CBC reports.


• Many churches in Canada, faced with the growing costs of keeping large buildings active while dealing with smaller congregations and spiking real estate prices, have chosen to downsize. Why not? Guy Dixon reports for The Globe and Mail.


• Bianca Bosker at Slate writes about Sky City, a French-themed planned city built outside of Shanghai that--contrary to the assumptions of Western critics--has actually become a thriving metropolis. This reappropriation and reinterpretation of other traditions, she argues, is how cities have always evolved. Fascinating report.