Contributor Blog

 

In 1979, the City of San Diego launched a plan to steer new development into the craftsman-lined neighborhoods close to downtown.   The idea was sound:  scatter higher density housing throughout existing smart growth communities. 

 

As James Howard Kunstler points out in Home From Nowhere, one of the tragedies of single-use zoning is that it branded shopping as an “obnoxious industrial activity that must be kept separate from houses”.  Ironically, the places where most Americans shop today come pretty close to “obnoxious” and “industrial”. 

Here in San Diego, public transportation is on life support.  Despite record ridership, trolley and bus service has been reduced, with some bus routes cancelled altogether.  Fares are up across the board.  The monthly light rail pass will be $72; three years ago it was $60.

Single-family detached homes typically epitomize sprawl, while 4 or 5 story apartment buildings now seem to be the utopian ideal for livable neighborhoods. But some of the most livable and walkable neighborhoods I know are largely comprised of single family homes.

 

Costco may be coming to Manhattan, bringing 2300 parking spaces with it.

The common wisdom about walkable neighborhoods holds that density – proximity to destinations – determines the number of walking trips. An ideal walking distance of a quarter mile is usually prescribed between residences and the nearest transit stop or retail center.

I don’t dispute that walking distance is important, especially when I’m lugging an armload of groceries. However, some trendy high-density development favors compactness at the expense of comfort and safety.

This Labor Day weekend, Southern California is facing an extreme heat wave, with temperatures soaring well above 100 degrees. Air conditioners have to work overtime to keep indoor temperatures near 80, and California power resources are operating at near capacity. As condominiums bake in the sun (as they do most of the year around here), there is not a solar panel in sight.

While we are still waiting for renewable energy, a few simple measures could lead to big residential power savings. Enter the laundry line, one of the oldest and most practical ways to use solar energy. Electric clothes dryers not only require vast amounts of fossil fuel-derived power, they also pour heat into living spaces and strain cooling systems.

In an editorial posted yesterday in Popular Mechanics, national security expert Stephen Flynn argues that Americans are relying on decades-old infrastructure intended for a much smaller passenger and vehicle load.

I’ve confirmed that it is possible to take public transportation to the most suburban of suburban locations: the outlet mall.

It’s great that global warming is finally getting its day in the media spotlight. But with all the buzz about carbon footprints and carbon offsets, I wonder whether the average American now believes that carbon dioxide is the only pollutant that we need to worry about?

Locating residential development closer to city centers comes with a price: increased exposure to air pollutants.

Travel a few miles outside of Santa Barbara and you’ll encounter a truly rare scene – rare for coastal California in the year 2007, that is.

The planned expansion of Interstate-5 in San Diego County would finally complete the Southern California metropolis. Los Angeles and Orange Counties became wall-to-wall sprawl development decades ago, erasing all traces of their rural heritage and the scenic outdoors. Northern San Diego County, with its quaint beach towns, is tenuously holding on to the last vestiges of agricultural land and breathable open space. But these areas too are rapidly developing. It is no surprise then that I-5, the only north-south route along the coast, is increasingly traffic clogged. The county’s solution? Invest $1.4 billion to expand the freeway from 8 lanes to 12 or 14 lanes along a 26-mile stretch of the north county coast.

It has been a few years since my last trip to Europe, so perhaps I have selective memory. But I don’t recall having to compete with hundreds of cars or choke down exhaust while exploring the streets of London. I remember navigating through seas of people that filled the city’s squares, alleyways and boulevards.