The city of Yakima, Washington, is exploring ideas to convert two large surface parking lots occupying valuable land in the city’s downtown core into a pedestrian friendly district.
Tuck Russell reports on the saga of Sean Hawkins, economic development manager of Yakima, who had to navigate the city’s byzantine archive of old plans for the downtown district in an effort to find the legal ground for the city’s proposed redevelopment plans.
“The new plan envisions a pedestrian friendly downtown featuring a central plaza with infrastructure for events, and an adjacent mercado. It also calls for the calming of Yakima Avenue by replacing some of its lanes for bikes and trolleys, rerouting some of the through auto traffic to nearby streets.”
As it turns out, Hawkins discovered that a lot of the ideas for a walkable downtown in this small city of less that 100,000 had been considered before. “A lot of these ideas that are coming forward, they're not new. They've been sitting around there before, but the execution and implementation of them – for whatever reason – just never occurred” says Hawkins in the story.
Read the full story: Yakima's future: Parks or parking lots?
Alysa Liu's Oakland Training Center Highlights the Importance of California's Defunded Redevelopment Agencies
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Charlestown, Indiana Announces City Square Improvement Project
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
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US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
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LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
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FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority