On November 8, 1889, Montana became the 41st state of the United States.
Random? Yep!
But it brings back a childhood memory that makes me smile a little. I was in 4th grade and our teacher assigned us each a state to research. We had to draw the state on a large piece of poster board, color it in, label it's capital, and...well, I don't remember what else. Then on parent open house night, we all paraded through the cafeteria/auditorium proudly displaying our respective states. I remember that I colored mine a light orange and that I totally loved the name of the capital - Helena. It sounds so romantic!
I think I would like to visit someday...isn't it pretty?
********
Another little known fact about November 8th is that it is World Urbanism Day, also known as World Town Planning Day.
I know - who'da thought, right? A whole day - a whole organization even - dedicated to the study of urban space and design! The day was founded in 1949 and is celebrated in 30 countries. For more information, click here.
I knew somewhere in the back of my head that there are city planning departments (I work in the construction industry, so yeah). But I never put any thought into the fact that there are people who actually study and come up with ideas on how to create attractive, livable spaces in our urban areas.
I actually just found out that I live in what is known as a "planned city". A planned city is defined as one that follows a particular design from inception to use. According to this article in Wikipedia, there are a minimum of approximately 86 so-called planned cities in the United States, including Austin, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Mystic Island, NJ; Salt Lake City, UT; and Washington, DC.
It's rather intriguing, don't you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment