Exclusives

BLOG POST

A New Blog on Economic Development in New York City

The gang at <a href="http://www.appleseedinc.com">Appleseed</a>, one of New York City's most interesting boutique economic development consultancies, has just <a href="http://blog.appleseedinc.com">launched a new blog</a>. This is looking to be a must-read, as founder Hugh O'Neill has been one of the most accurate analysts and forecasters of economic trends in the New York region for many years now, and a strategist bar none. If his first post, a take on New York City's current commercial real estate market is a harbinger of things to come, I suspect we'll be back for more.

August 6 - Anthony Townsend

BLOG POST

Island Urbanism: Teasing Out the Unique

Whether kissed by trade winds in Hawaii, home to dozens of unique cultures in the Caribbean, or scoured by Nor’easter’s off the coast of Maine, islands are magnetic to burnt-out urbanites but tend to be tough places for natives. I was a guest not long ago of <a href="http://www.menis.es/flash_engl.swf" target="_blank">Fernando Menis</a>, an architect who has built an international reputation from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. It’s not easy to be true to a unique place – as he aspires to be – when what works locally doesn’t always “translate” in the globalized and image-driven world of architecture.

August 5 - James S. Russell

BLOG POST

Embracing the power of the state

After spending more than two decades in local government before my eight years as Governor of Maryland, I came to realize how the state was contributing to the spread of sprawl by funding infrastructure improvements, school construction, and transportation investments, among many other things. When we began to utilize the entire state budget as a tool for smarter growth, we found ourselves in uncharted territory. Leading the way is certainly an adventure, but it also comes with the unenviable task of not having someone who has gone before to help navigate the journey.

August 3 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

Transportation Infrastructure "Stressed To the Breaking Point"

In an <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4219981.html" target="_blank">editorial</a> 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.

August 3 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

Borrowed time

The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis puts the spotlight on the unsexy topic of infrastructure maintenance. But a smart growth policy, "Fix it First," has been focused in the area for some time. The policy, in place in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and for the last four years in Massachusetts, states that no new highways or bridges can be built until all existing infrastructure is in a state of good repair. Generally this meant stuff that was in and around existing cities; thus it's a smart growth policy, as the makeovers make cities and older suburbs more liveable and functional, while sprawl-enabling highway construction is limited.

August 3 - Anthony Flint

BLOG POST

Tender is the Strip Mall

Every summer I make a pilgrimage to Scott and Zelda's graves, in Rockville, Maryland. Sure, I could pay homage by going to Cap d'Antibes, where they whooped it up every summer, but the Euro is so high. And Rockville is so ... scenic.<div> </div><div> </div><div>F. Scott Fitzgerald and his rather nutty wife are buried under a huge live oak next to St. Mary's Church, where their daughter moved them in the 70s. She probably wouldn't have done it if she had known what would happen to Rockville: the Rockville Pike, an endless strip mall that crescendos with Bloomingdale's and eventually fizzles out with Marlo Furniture. </div><div> </div><div>

July 31 - Margaret Foster

FEATURE

In The Name Of 'Community'

July 30 - Ali Modarres

BLOG POST

Walking the Tightrope: Creating Great Coastal Communities

In my last <a href="/node/24234" target="_blank">blog post</a>, I talked about some of the challenges and growth pressures coastal communities are facing. Within 10 years, the coastal population is expected to grow by 12 million people—or by 3,600 people per day. This growth poses unique opportunities—and challenges—to coastal communities. The issue facing these communities becomes one of balance: how to maximize the opportunities waterfront development can provide to a community and, at the same time, meet the often significant challenges.

July 26 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

Segways, Sidewalks, and Scooters

Should Segways be allowed on sidewalks? Should all bicycles travel only in designated bike lanes? Should motorized scooters be treated as if they are wheelchairs? Where should rollerblades, skateboards, adult tricycles, bikes with trailers or kick scooters travel? The world of personal mobility is expanding. And so is the pressure in favor of alternatives to the grandaddy of personal mobility -- the automobile. In spite of its importance as image-maker and status-definer, a car is just a method for getting a person from Point A to Point B. Moving people -- that’s its basic purpose.

July 24 - Barbara Knecht

BLOG POST

Railing About Rules

At the opening dinner of an international workshop on building a better national transportation policy, I found myself seated between Charlotte, North Carolina mayor Pat McCrory and Shirley DeLibero, a consultant who headed transit authorities in New Jersey and Houston, and was a deputy in both Dallas and Washington D.C. McCrory's a Republican, Charlotte's first six-term mayor, first elected mayor in 1995. While his city has grown 20 percent, McCrory's presided over a shift from an all-roads strategy to a hybrid model adding rail transit to heavily congested corridors radiated from the region's center. The first line, a south corridor, is scheduled to open this fall, supported by the half-cent sales tax passed in 1998 to build and operate a better transit system. Now in 2007, the mayor finds himself in a serious cross-fire as he ponders re-election prospects.

July 23 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

It's Summer, Inspire Me...

Most people use the Summer months to re-connect with pastimes forgotten during winter months. It is this time of the year that sales soar both at the box office and in bookstores. Most normal people I know take trashy novels with them to the beach or submerge themselves in an entire season of 24 (which thanks to Netflix can be accomplished in a few intense evenings). I tend to lean toward the other extreme (although I have indulged in bad TV from time to time). My wife calls me a design geek because my bedside table is always full of design magazines, books and theory.

July 23 - Scott Page

BLOG POST

Saving Ginormous Amounts of Energy

I couldn’t wait to use the new word, ginormous, which Merriam-Webster recently added to the Collegiate Dictionary. My spell checker has been trained and now I can get about the business of saving ginormous amounts of energy. Recent bouts of ecoterrorism in the form of Hummer vandalism in Washington D.C. and the growing media attention to the environmental hypocrisy of the travel and housing habits of card-carrying carbon footprint club members (take a gander at the 10,000 sq. ft. home of Al Gore or the 28,200 sq.

July 21 - Steven Polzin

BLOG POST

How Do You Like Your Public Space, Grilled Or Fried?

I am currently on charrette in Bryant, Arkansas. As a brief primer, Bryant is located approximatley 15 miles to the southwest of Little Rock and is currently the fastest growing city in the state. This is mostly due to a its proximity to major employment centers and its thriving LEED certified school system. Though I could regurgitate a slew of citizen comments regarding the city's lack of communal space and the recent impoverishiment of its public realm, the picture and brief explantation below says it all. <img src="/files/u405-Bryant-Chick-Fil-A.jpg" alt="Bryant Chik-Fil-A" title="Bryant Chik-Fil-A" width="303" height="201" align="middle" />Photo Courtesy of Matt Lambert

July 19 - Mike Lydon

BLOG POST

Europe's Glory, America's Opportunity

WROCLAW, Poland--I have been swanning about Eastern Europe for the better part of two months, wandering the streets of cities large and small, famous and obscure. As should be apparent to anyone short of Toby Keith or <a href="http://inhofe.senate.gov/" target="_blank" title="Charmingly conservative">James Inhofe</a>, even the most undistinguished European city could teach any American city a thing or two about charm, walkability, and gracious living.

July 17 - Josh Stephens

FEATURE

Book Review: Worthy Of The Nation

The second edition of this seminal historical planning study of Washington, D.C. offers readers an in-depth look at the city's birth and creation.

July 16 - Matthew B. Gilmore

BLOG POST

Car Kabob Kibosh

In the Chicago suburb of Berwyn, Illinois, an iconic piece of public art featuring a 40-foot spear stabbing through a pileup of eight cars will soon be replaced with a Walgreens pharmacy. <img src="/files/u5174/carkabob2.jpg" alt="The Spindle, Berwyn, Illinois (Source: www.berwyn-il.gov)" title="The Spindle, Berwyn, Illinois (Source: www.berwyn-il.gov)" width="133" height="167" align="middle" />

July 12 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Where Are the Star Planners?

I recently discovered the Greek urban planner <a href="http://www.doxiadis.org/page/default.asp?la=1&id=10">Constantinos Doxiadis</a> (1913-1975) through a biographical sketch by Ray Bromley in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0470851600/sr=8-2/qid=1184009865/ref=dp_proddesc_0/102-0473148-3796168?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1184009865&sr=8-2">collection of essays</a>. An energetic polymath, Doxiadis launched his career overseeing postwar reconstruction in Greece after WWII. Through involvement in the United Nations he developed an extensive international network of contacts concerned with urban development.

July 9 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

Mixed Use A Mixed Bag

BELLAGIO – No, not that Vegas hotel, but the ancient village of Bellagio, Italy – on the gorgeous rocky shores of Lake Como, a deep water lake that winds around the Dolomites in northern Italy. Here to cover a month-long summit about 21st century urban futures, I rented an apartment and rather quickly woke up to realize that, after many years writing about the virtues of mixed-use urban centers, I had never actually known a single residential night in one. Lots of nights in big hotels of course, but that’s not really the same thing as living in a residential unit of a small building over retail shops and restaurants.

July 9 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

More Folks Work at Home and More Homes Where No One Works

I find it intriguing when I hear folks talk about how high energy prices will cause a tipping point and everyone will rush back into the city in order to afford to commute to work. If, or as, higher costs for energy begin to play a greater role in location choice it is as likely that they will force even more employers to move to the suburbs. In many urban areas we may be well past the point where fuel price pressures to minimize travel would result in land use changes that move population back to town.

July 8 - Steven Polzin

BLOG POST

Whatever happened to Integration?

This year in Parents Involved in Community Schools Inc. v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County (Ky.) Board of Education the Supreme Court ruled that school districts could not assign students on the basis of race, even if the goal was to promote integration. To some this is the end of an era, with affirmative action and other diversity promoting programs in jeopardy as the court has now come full circle using the Brown decision to outlaw programs that promote integration. Most commentators on this ruling have highlighted the implications for school integration programs and even affirmative action more broadly. But the ruling also speaks to an issue pertinent to planners as well—racial segregation in American cities, and by racial segregation I am referring to the segregation of African Americans who are by far the most segregated group in America.

July 6 - Lance Freeman