The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide
The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.
Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander was an architect, designer, and theorist whose work explored a deceptively simple question: why do some places feel alive while others don’t? Best known for A Pattern Language, Alexander developed an approach to architecture and city-making centered on the recurring patterns through which people inhabit, shape, and give life to places.
Anastasia Sukhoroslova
Anastasia Sukhoroslova is a Berlin-based urbanist, community builder, and founder and CEO of All Things Urban, a global platform connecting urban professionals with ideas, opportunities, organizations, and one another. What began as an effort to connect a highly interdisciplinary field has grown into a community approaching 100,000 people around the world, spanning planning, mobility, sustainability, technology, design, and other forms of citymaking.
The Social Life of the Sidewalk
Although many young people travel independently in the city, transportation research seldom considers the experiential qualities of their routes, focusing instead on the functional aspects of mode choice. More in-depth understanding of how adolescents experience, negotiate, and perceive everyday mobility can support informed design, policy, and planning interventions to make these journeys safer and more enjoyable