New (sub)Urbanism

Canada - A Suburban Nation

2006-08-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

The Globe and Mail has a decent article today on suburbanization in Canada. Like its southern neighbor, Canadian suburbs are becoming more diverse and densely populated.

Like many mainstream journalists, however, Jill Mahoney trumpets New Urbanism developments as a growing antidote to suburban sprawl. While there are numerous new urbanist developments--such as Cornell in Markham or East Clayton in BC--they remain the exception and are not adequately linked to regional planning.

Citation: Jill Mahoney, Suburban Myths Demolished," The Globe and Mail, 31 July 2006, p. A4.

The New Urbanism Comes to the Carribbean

2006-05-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the Cayman Compass, it appears that the global conquest of the New Urbanism planning paradigm is proceeding quite nicely.

In a speech last week in the Grand Cayman capital of George Town, Dart Realty CEO, James Lammers, discussed the company's new masterplan project, called Camana Bay, which is currently under construction in the British protectorate.

Built on the typical new urbanist model, Camana Bay is themed as a place where "life blossoms." I am curious as to who the market is for the community. The Cayman Islands, in addition to being the site for shell corporations to dodge US tax laws, is also a popular tourist resort. Given an average per capita GDP of $32,000 (US), I am not sure if the locals are the target for this development.

Perhaps Dart is envisioning another Seaside-type of development? Or maybe Camana Bay is just a convenient way to ship profits made through Dart Realty's parent company, US plastics manufacturer Dart Container, to an offshore entity as way to avoid taxes.

Nimby and Brzezinski?

2006-04-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Today's Washington Post reports on negotiations between suburban Virginia's Fairfax county and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's former National Security Adviser over a plan by the county to put in a sidewalk in front of his home on 1061 Spring Hill Road in McClean.

According to the article Brzezinski has been less than enthusiastic about the plan, failing to negotiate on terms for a sidewalk easement. Having lived in Fairfax County for almost 30 years, he undoubtedly has seen the sleepy farming county grow over the past couple of decades into a sprawling behemoth.

Like other suburbanites, Brzezinski exhibits the classic NIMBY attitude toward growth. Commenting on the McMansions that have sprouted all over this prosperous county, the Post quotes Brzezinski as saying that they are "reflective of cultural pretension and pomposity" and "make the whole area look like a joke, a Disneyland imitation of the European aristocracy, without the land."

Brzezinski probably has a point; however, his reactionary stance is not helping a concerted--if overdue--effort to increase mobility options in the county. As the map shows, Brzezinski's property is near the corner of Spring Hill and Old Dominion Dr.--a thoroughfare with retail shopping possibilities--which the county wants to link through a pedestrian corridor as part of its countywide trails plan.

Let's hope that Brzezinski's intransigence subsides long enough to realize that increasing pedestrian connectivity is an important step towards smart growth and will like increase the livability (and property values) of his home and neighborhood.

More Urban Craziness from South Korea

2006-04-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Taipei Times and the KBS World Radio are reporting on the grand opening of Puju Camp in the shadows of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.

Puju Camp is the latest in the Geyonggi English Village program that is expanding across the northern province.

Like the New Songdo City, being constructed in the southern part of the country, Puju is designed to be an English-language enclave. Unlike New Songdo--which is envisioned as an international entrepreneurial zone--Puju Camp is an educational and recreational site.

Designed as an alternative to sending South Korean youth abroad to learn English, Puju Camp provides the theme of the English-speaking city within the country. It is supposed to obviate what Gyeonggi province Governor Sohn Hak-kyu calls the "'Goose Father' phenomenon" whereby people leave the country to study and never return.

The Chinese news service, Xinhua, reports that Puju sports a reproduction of Stonehenge, English castles, and a "mini train."

Puju Camp seems to be further evidence of the immanent themeing of the entire globe and the elevation of the hyper-real as urbanism's animating force.

Density as an Antidote to Obesity?

2006-04-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

According to the Vancouver Sun, SmartGrowth BC has released a study by UBC's Larry Frank that suggests:

Each quartile increase in residential density corresponds with a 23-per-cent increase in the odds of walking for non-work travel, according to a recent Seattle study quoted in the report.

We have covered this connection before, but it is always important to point out new data.

SmartGrowthBC doesn't appear to have the report on their website so I don't know if Clark deals with this, but it is important to point out that density must be accompanied by mixed land use in order to engender a less sedentary lifestyle. As some defenders of dominant patterns of suburbanization point out, suburban density has increased over the past decade. I would not expect this to correlate, however, with active living behaviors since little has been done in reducing mixed-use zoning codes.

Perhaps some of the new research coming out of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Active Living by Design program will shed more light on the relationship between health and the urban form.

Economic Doldrums Hurt Affluent Suburbs

2006-04-01T15:25:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal has a good article today discussing the travails of the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills.

It seems the recent economic woes hurting the major automakers are "trickling down" to affect not only the normal class of victims--unionized workers--but are also causing the upper classes to feel the pinch.

Of course residents of Bloomfield Hills--a community whose annual household income is in excess of $150,000--probably have more resources to deal with economic uncertgainty than the average auto worker.

What is interesting from the standpoint of metropolitan development, however, is the regional impact of economic monocultures and to demonstrate the fact that the persistent economic anemia that has affected the US economy since 2001 is causing changes in behavior among the upper-middle classes.

I would expect that this will undoubtedly be an issue in many of the competitive suburban Congressional seats during next November's election.

Geriatric Commune Built in California

2006-02-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

The New York Times today has an interesting article on a cohousing project in Davis, California developed by and for a group of retirees. The small development, called Glacier Circle, features a series of townhomes and a "common house" that allows for gathering and socializing. The idea behind this development is to enhance social networks that are often in a state of uncertainty for many seniors.

Employing a modified "superblock" layout--the development is part of a movement challenging the modernist impulse to institutionalize the elderly and to resist the rather vacuous "lifestyle communities" that dominate the upper-class retirement landscape.

One issue that does not get addressed in the Times article is the fact that the segmentation of urban function that characterizes post-War North American suburban development has been profoundly anti-elderly. While Glacier Circle further advances that project, it is important to note that vibrant social networks and the compact urban form that marks pre-War cities offer a great deal of autonomy for seniors. In a city, the proximity of shopping, social activity, and multiple transportation options can enhance the quality of life for people as their physical mobility declines.

Social isolation still exists in urban areas--as Eric Klinenberg has demonstrated in his treatment of patterns of elderly mortality during Chicago's 1995 heat wave--but more concern with the particular needs and interests of historically-underrepresented populations such as the elderly or children can provide inspiration for more sensible general planning policies.

Washington, DC Bus System--An Example of Transportation Injustice

2005-12-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post has an excellent article on the woes of the city's Metrobus system. Unlike the city's subway system which is relatively efficient, clean, and reliable, the bus system is exactly the opposite.

Buses are difficult to run efficiently due to the fact that they generally don't have a dedicated right-of-way, making them susceptible to traffic congestion patterns. They are also usually used by the most economically marginalized people in US urban areas due to the general lack of investment given to public transit.

In DC these structural issues seem to be compounded by poor management and lack of investment in analyzing the system's performance. The article is well worth reading for an example of the deplorable consequences of a system that combines poor administration with minimal resources.

Housing Affordability Plummets in US

2005-12-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal Reports today on the latest National Association of Realtors' Affordability Index which indicates that, nationwide, housing affordability is at its lowest level since 1991.

While homeownership is at record levels, the article points out that people are likely spending a higher percentage of their income on housing and living further afield from metropolitan employment and cultural centers.

As evidence of this trend, check out the article in today's New York Times documenting the growing numbers of New Yorkers commuting to the city from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.

The editorial cartoon shown above, drawn by Ventura County Star's Steve Greenberg represents accurately how many communities are being squeezed by the rising housing prices to the extent that middle-class professionals cannot live in the towns where they work.

Housing affordability is one of the most pressing domestic policy issues in the US today, but curiously it is also one of the least discussed in the political realm. If the Democrats were smart--wishful thinking, I know--they would develop this as a key wedge issue in next year's midterm elections.

California's Central Valley Makes Developers Pay for Pollution

2005-12-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

An article in today's New York Times discusses the recent decision by Fresno County to require commercial and residential developers to pay fees for air pollution generated by new development.

According to the article, the fees may be minimized through compliance with new regulations that promote design which reduces air pollution.

This is an interesting "indirect" approach at dealing with the Valley's poor air quality and the type of growth that facilitates it. The main sources of air pollution in the Valley are automobile emissions and agricultural production. However, development trends are showing that agriculture in many parts of the Valley is being supplanted by exurban development. By targeting developers, the fees will ideally influence the type of developments they build, encouraging more environmentally-friendly behaviors.

Of course, representatives of the building industry are against the regulations, arguing that they will boost costs. This is perhaps true, however the health affects of poor air quality are immense and the fees are minimal (averaging $780 per home with no mitigation as opposed to $480 with full compliance to the air quality regulations).

This modified market-based approach towards dealing with the pressing issue of air pollution in an indirect fashion is relatively unique to the United States and it is unclear whether it will be effective in reducing air pollution. I am generally skeptical of leaving public health issues up to the market since, in this case, developers can just continue building developments that require pollutive activity and pass the modest price of the fees on to consumers.

Furthermore, individualizing the fees is not a substitute for responsble regional planning. Individual developers may make environmentally-sustainable subdivisions, but people will likely still have to commute long distances to work, shopping, etc... While the fees are going to be utilized for air quality improvement projects, such as public transportation enhancements, it is unclear if these enhancements will be effective without regional plans that concentrate higher-density land development around urban centres.

Interestingly, the New Urbanist-type of developments that would be encouraged under these regulations are already sought after in many markets, making developers more likely to build these types of developments regardless of the savings from lowered pollution fees.

This initiative will certainly merit observation in the long term.

Here is more information on the new regulations from the Fresno Bee. Here are a couple of pro and con editorials also from the Bee. Draft materials relating to the regulations can be found here.

EU Ministerial on Sustainable Communities is Underway

2005-12-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a chance to digest all of the information coming out of the European Union's Ministerial Informal Meeting on Sustainable Communities that took place in Bristol this week, but it should be interesting to monitor.

Issues of governance when it comes to developing urban policy are extremely important, but often overlooked. In the case of European cities, bringing an international level of governance into the mix is undoubtedly going to have significant impacts on metropolitan development.

The major keyword underlining much of the discussion is "sustainability." This is a highly contested term. Some have argued that the impossibility of pinning down its meaning makes it less useful for guiding policymaking. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see the discussion emerge from various quarters. Here is a copy of EU Commissioner Danuta Hübner's speech to the ministerial. Here you can find a report of British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's pushing for a "European Social Model" of sustainability. Finally, take a look at the Bristol Accord--the document emerging from the meeting to guide future discussions.

I will try and post on the substance of the Bristol Accord in the next week.

Seaside, FL - Weight of Success Proving Heavy

2005-12-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has an article on the challenges facing Seaside--the Andres Duany-designed Florida Panhandle resort community that presaged the success of the New Urbanist movement in the United States.

One of the challenges is ecological. Hurricane Dennis subsumed portions of the beach and damaged the dunes separating the housing from the Gulf's waters. As the article rightly asserts, the planning framework employed by developer Robert Davis and Duany--which limited private housing on the oceanfront in favor of a communal beach--proved fortuitous. Since housing doesn't abut the water and natural dune systems were respected, housing took less of a hit than in other parts of the region.

Erosion, however, remains an issue--particularly given recent predictions by climatologists that severe weather will likely continue to pummel the region. What would happen in the event of a Category 5 hitting Seaside is unknown, but it certainly wouldn't be pretty.

The article also discusses the success of Seaside and how prices have increased dramatically and "urban" problems like traffic congestion are festering.

This latter aspect is interesting. The article fails to discuss the regional growth in the Panhandle and the role of state government--and, in particular, Governor Jeb Bush--in setting into motion a series of growth policies that are significantly transforming the area. The issue is particularly complex--as most large scale development issues are; but I would point people interested in learning more about the transformation of the panhandle into what will essentially be one large suburb sprawling to two sources.

First, check out June Wiaz and Katherine Ziewitz's book from last year, Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle which looks at the state's largest real estate developer and land owner and their plans for transforming the region. Next, Bill Moyers did a special a couple of years ago exploring the issue of Jeb Bush's ties to St. Joe's. I haven't verified the links, but this blog apparently has clips of the program.

New Urbanist Land Grab Begins in Mississippi

2005-12-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

It seems as if the land grab is in full swing on Mississippi's hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast as the "Mississippi Renewal" project is starting to survey land and implement the plans concocted by a group of New Urbanists last October.

In response to a post I made criticizing the process as being elite-driven and lacking significant public input, John Massengale, an architect and town planner involved in the project, suggested otherwise, indicating that public meetings were undertaken and that they were well-attended.

While Massengale contends that "our first instruction from [Mississippi Governor Haley] Barbour was, 'No one will be told to leave their property,'" now that the New Urbanist brigades have left Mississippi, we are seeing familiar patterns of dispossession ensue. The New York Times reports that many residents in Biloxi's neighborhoods--having returned to the city after months of displacement--are finding that their plans to rebuild their homes and neighborhoods are being resisted by the city and developers.

The New Urbanist vision sees the Gulf Coast "competing with Myrtle Beach," making an extension of tourist amenities inevitable. For residents such as those profiled in the Times piece, that means space for casino expansion and golf course development--not the rebuilding of their lost homes.

I expect that we will hear further stories of longtime resident displacement as the rebuilding effort continues. It still seems clear, however, that plans such as those developed by Barbour's renewal commission were made without significant mechanisms for participation by the everyday people affected by the disaster. This is not meant to discount the New Urbanism. As Massengale points out on his own blog, residents of affected areas see considerable promise in New Urbanist planning frameworks.

I am more concerned with processes of democratic decisionmaking and accountability that should be leveraged as communities deal with the aftermath of the destruction. It is quite easy for private interests with access to huge amounts of resources to influence extensive (and government-subsidized) rebuilding in such a way that lines their own pocketbooks at the expense of the public interest. It would be unfortunate to see the New Urbanism hijacked in such a way.

Sprawl Comes to India

2005-12-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

If you can handle Amy Waldman's simplistic neo-colonialist characterization of India's "stubborn natives'" irrational rejection of "progress," then her article in today's New York Times on the Golden Quadrilateral Highway, which circumscribes the Indian sub-continent, is worth a read.

Waldman's tone is especially condescending, but her descriptions of the way in which the massive, controlled-access highway project is changing life in India's cities and villages are worth noting. Much like the interstate highway system in the US, the Golden Quadrilateral is bisecting villages, transforming urban and rural economies, and changing mobility patterns in the country.

Noteworthy is how everyday Indians affected by the highway have largely been shut out of the process of planning the road. Also noteworthy is the absence of any discussion about the viability of such investment in highways given the realities of global oil markets. India imports more than 70% of its oil from abroad. In an era of increased demands and decreasing supplies, the energy implications of such investment are significant.

The Internet Has Finally Proven Its Worth

2005-12-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I posted about Google's Ride Finder which allows users to find real-time information about the location of taxis in selected American cities. Based on the google map interface and using global positioning technology, Ride Finder gives you both location and telephone numbers for cabbies.

Numerous folks have hacked google maps to display other customized geographical information. Today, the weblog Chicagoist reports the introduction of the website, Drinktown. Drinktown uses information from taverns in Chicago and Milwaukee to provide interactive maps showing the location of particular drink specials around each city. Drinktown provides excellent functionality, allowing you to search by zip code, particular night of the week for specials, and the type of drink special (beer, mixed drink, wine, etc...).

This is, by far, the most useful redeployment of google maps that I've seen--let's hope it spreads to other cities!

(Image taken from Chicagoist)

Transportation and Emission Reductions

2005-12-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

With the first major post-Kyoto global conference on climate change underway this week in Montreal, there are interesting proposals emerging from various NGOs concerned with the connections between urban form and energy use.

The Victoria Transportation Institute has issued a nice, concise paper (in .pdf format) laying out what it calls "win-win" strategies for utilizing transportation policy reform for reducing emissions. Among the proposals it advocates are charging adequate fees for roads and parking, making transportation funding mode-neutral, and employing land use strategies that allow for higher densities.

Given the fact that transportation is the single largest source of emissions in auto-dependent countries like Canada and the United States, these proposals are especially pressing. The federal level in the US offers little hope for substantive action, of course, due to the corrupt and incompetent nature of the Bush regime. Luckily, the mayors of over 190 US cities have recently signed on the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which indicates their support for reducing emissions in accordance with Kyoto.

This is poor substitute for a binding federal policy, but in the absence of any federal leadership, it is the best that can be expected.

Australian Labor Party Battles Sprawl

2005-12-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

A couple of interesting articles from the Queensland Courier-Mail point to proposals to quell sprawl in Australian metro areas. The first discusses a policy paper to be released by the opposition Labor leader Kim Beazley that advocates increasing urban core redevelopment at the expense of the "McMansions" that dot may suburban areas. The policy paper appears to have not yet been posted on the opposition website, making it difficult to assess the proposal.

In Queensland, Labor Primer Peter Beattie is proposing that drivers parking in the Brisbane Central Business District pay a tax that would be reinvested in public transport. Unlike the London congestion charge, this plan would not tax people who drive through the CBD--only those parking.

Efforts to more effectively charge users for the true costs of automobile travel are catching on, especially given the success of London's experiment. I am normally wary of regressive taxation schemes, but when the revenue generated is dedicated to improving mobility technologies that can be used cheaply by the public they are sensible. It is good to see that Beattie's proposal also advocates for bulking up the bicycling infrastructure.

Canada's Mayors Brace for Election

2005-11-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

Paul Martin's government officially collapsed yesterday, paving the way for an election scheduled for January 23, 2006. While the issue of the Liberal party's corruption prompted the latest collapse of the minority government and "clean governance" promises to be a consistent campaign theme over the next few weeks, the mayors of Canada's largest cities are taking a proactive approach to make sure that urban interests are served by the next government.

One of Martin's accomplishments was the New Deal for Cities which funnels gas tax money back to cities for use on "sustainable infrastructure" projects--such as public transportation.

Most of the major cities have already signed agreements with the federal government to insure that the gas tax money continues to flow regardless of the party in charge. The mayors are broadening their view--in yesterday's meeting they agreed that the next government should provide them with a slice of the income and sales taxes, as well.

Whether that will happen is uncertain at this point. But it is a positive development that the New Deal will continue. Moderate environmentalists have welcomed it in light of Canada's continuing problems meeting its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol--a particularly embarrassing disclosure given this week's meeting in Montreal to discuss the post-Kyoto climate change agreements.

China's Cities: A Living Hell?

2005-11-30T12:34:00.000-08:00

Given the recent tragedy in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province where, for five days, the city's water supply has been shut off due to an upstream toxic chemical spill, it might be an important time to point people in the direction of two recent excellent articles on China, environmentalism, and urbanism.

As a result of a decade and a half of extensive industrial growth, China's cities are among the most polluted in the world. The lack of strong enforcement of environmental protection, massive urban migration, and the centrality of polluting industries to the country's economic growth have all merged to create a pretty dire situation in many of the country's cities.

Bill McKibben, in the December 2005 issue of Harper's, has an excellent article detailing his recent trip to some of the industrial areas of the country. Download his article here (it's a very large .pdf file).

Also worth reading is a lengthy article on China's economy by Robert Skidelsky in the Dec. 1 issue of the New York Review of Books. Among the books he addresses is John Friedmann's China's Urban Transition.

China's balance of new prosperity and dire poverty is having varied and contradictory manifestations with regard to urban space. Home of the world's largest mall and cities of 4 million people with a water supply contaminated by Benzene, it certainly is rife with competing tendencies.

Of course, European and US cities of the nineteenth century exhibited these same contradictions in urban space. One of the ways in which these contradictions were "resolved" (if one argues that they are, indeed, resolved) has been through both the expansion of democratic accountability and the more recent offshoring of pollutive industries. Given China's totalitarian regime and the lack of options for offshoring industries--China is, more or less, the global "bottom of the barrel" in terms of labor costs--it seems that the China will likely have a different pattern of negotiating these contradictions.

When Corporations Build the City

2005-11-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

"Public-Private Partnerships" are all the rage these days. Municipal governments, strapped for cash and facing crumbling public infrastructure are increasingly looking to private companies to inject much-needed cash into re-development of roads, public transit and sewers.

While these arrangements may be convenient--or even unavoidable--for many municipalities, they demand intense public scrutiny given the fact that the financiers have their own interests to look after.

Australian MP Malcolm Turnbull has an interesting op-ed piece in the Sydney newspaper, The Age that mentions the new 2.1km Cross City Tunnel that runs under Sydney's central business district. The Tunnel was built and financed by CrossCity Motorway which will own and operate the tunnel for 30 years. Apparently, in negotiating the deal, the government of New South Wales may have struck an unpublicized agreement with the developer to insure that they receive a healthy return on their investment.

Turnbull alleges that the government is ignoring other remedies for reducing congestion and increasing mobility in order to guarantee that people's only option for getting around Sydney's CBD is to take the Cross City Tunnel, giving CrossCity Motorway a good chance for reaping large profits at the public's expense.

The New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption is set to investigate emerging claims of wrongdoing, so the story is far from over. For urbanists, this example should make us extremely skeptical about private involvement in providing essential components of the public infrastructure.

Many Sydney bloggers offer more information on the situation: The Pigs Are Flying, Modia Miontaur, Spleenie's Rant.

Exploring Chicago's Alleys

2005-11-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

The Chicago Tribune had a great series of articles a couple of weeks ago on the culture of alleys in the city. It was an excellent series that actually explored these spaces as important cultural and economic sites in the social geography of the city. Alleys are one of the most under-appreciated spaces in urban life, and its great to see a mainstream media outlet give them their due!

Redlining Returns to New Orleans??

2005-11-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

The Dallas Morning News has an interesting article on the rebuilding of New Orleans. From the early days of settlement in the city, the Lower Ninth Ward was a cypress swamp that was subject to frequent flooding. Thus, its value as desirable real estate was minimal and it became the most affordable place for the city's historically marginalized populations. The levee projects of the past one hundred years kept it from total destruction--until Katrina.

Now, as New Orleans contemplates rebuilding a city that promises to be half its previous size in population, the question of which areas to concentrate rebuilding is a major issue. Apparently the old techniques of redlining are being considered. This technique has traditionally been used as a way to identify neighborhoods that do not have great potential for maintaining property values. If a neighborhood was redlined, people who wanted to purchase property in the area would have difficulty obtaining a mortgage. In the past, the racial makeup of neighborhoods was used as a prime indicator of maintenance of property values: more African Americans, less likelihood for maintenance of property values.

Of course, these determinations were based on racist assumptions that permeated the political culture of the United States until the emergence of the modern civil rights movement in the 1950s. It would be extremely problematic if these techniques were brought back to justify the lack of investment in a predominantly African American neighborhood following the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.

Tax Reform and Urbanism

2005-11-03T07:56:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year the US President appointed an advisory panel to offer recommendations for "simplifying" the federal tax structure. On Tuesday, the panel presented its report to Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Usually when conservatives like Bush speak of "simplifying" the tax system, it means finding ways to continue to expand income inequality in this country by decreasing the tax burden on the rich and increasing the tax burden on the middle class.

In conservative circles there was great hope that the Presidential commission would recommend a "flat tax" percentage or a national sales tax whose regressive nature would decrease the tax burden on the wealthy. Great conservative economic minds like that of former high school wrestling coach, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, have been advocating such schemes for years.

Rather surprisingly, the commission did not embrace a flat tax scheme but did recommend capping the mortgage interest tax deduction, home equity loan deductions, and eliminating deductions of local and state taxes.

This is pretty remarkable since the tax breaks--as they are currently structured--benefit those at the higher ends of the socio-economic spectrum significantly. Curiously, this is one of the reasons given by the commission in their recommendation. For more on the economic aspects of the proposals, check out David Burnori's op-ed from the Washington Post, Daniel Gross' commentary in Slate, and this article from today's New York Times.

Let me touch briefly on the portents for urbanization should these deductions be abolished. First, it is important to remember that metropolitan and suburban development in the US over the past 60 years has been largely shaped by federal tax and spending policies. Ken Jackson's seminal work, Crabgrass Frontier, gives a great background on this. Mortgage and tax deductions subsidize home owners and are largely responsible for the spawning the sprawling residential sub-divisions that are a fixture of the suburban landscape.

Private capital is attracted to these projects since the subsidy schemes artificially lower the market value of housing. Aided by compliant municipal governments who see the promise of higher property taxes, developers at the exurban fringe generally are given a green light for large-scale projects. These artificially low prices are one of the reasons for the much-publicized "housing boom" and the concominant affordable housing crisis which affects those low-income earners who cannot afford to buy a house.

Similarly, the ability for homeowners to deduct local property taxes is one of the reasons many suburban municipalities have superior public safety amenities and public schools. The fact that homeowners in affluent suburbs can write off their property taxes makes it more politically palatable to increase those taxes for quality public services.

Clearly the government involvement in these indirect housing subsidies benefits wealthier communities at the expense of poorer ones. But what would be the impacts on urban development should these deductions be reduced?

One of the arguments leveled by the commission is that the mortgage subsidy unnaturally attracts capital that would otherwise be invested in different sectors and the result is inefficiencies. They are probably correct in this assumption--however, they downplay the implications of shifting capital investment to other economic sectors.

One characteristic of the housing industry that differs from other sectors is that investment is, generally, tied to particular places. Construction creates many jobs that can not be outsourced. With the end of mortgage subsidies, capital would be invested in other sectors. Due to the increasing globalization of information technologies and manufacturing, it would not be unreasonable to expect large scale investment to pour into these non place-bound industries, continuing to improve corporate bottom lines, but doing little for the thousands employed in the housing industry.

Getting rid of the subsidy, however, would probably have an appreciable impact on suburban development. Housing value would diminish at first in order to adjust to the dictates of the market. There may be less incentive to build large, new developments at the urban fringe, however. Municipalities may be able to guide planning more efficiently without having to worry about satisfying the wills of corporate "mega-developers."

It is probably not even worth seriously discussing the commission's recommendations since they would be extremely difficult to adopt given the current political climate. Needless to say, Bush has shown no interest in making the tax system more equitable given his dastardly tax cuts for the wealthy at the beginning of his first term and his idiotic and misconceived plan to offer tax rebates to "jump start" the economy.

Furthermore, to challenge the mortgage subsidy would require substantial political courage--something hard to conceive coming from the most cowardly president since Warren Harding. Also, given the fact that suburban voters would be particularly hit by these changes, it is extremely unlikely that a Republican Congress would do anything to alienate this voting block.

There are also actually very good reasons to maintain these subsidies, which I'll take up in a future posting.

Of course, one of the main reasons for the commission in the first place was to deal with issues of economic growth in an era marked by wreckless spending deficits. Perhaps an alternative way to deal with this would be to hold Bush accountable for his miserable failure in foreign policy?

Everybody Loves a Parade

2005-10-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I saw John Norquist, CEO of the Chicago-based Congress of New Urbanism, give a lecture extolling the virtues of traditional urban design as a remedy for suburban sprawl. One of the New Urbanists' big claims is that sprawling suburbia inhibits the spontaneous social interaction that is essential for vibrant urban life.

To demonstrate this point he showed a picture of your standard seven lane suburban arterial highway hosting a parade. It looked like a miserable event: spectators were far removed from the action, lined up in an unpaved ditch with no shade on a sunny day. For Norquist, this was the epitome of the lack of civic connectedness that accompanies dominant forms of suburbia.

Norquist must have been pleased yesterday as Chicago was ground zero for civic parades. The largest event was an outpouring of love and appreciation for the city's heroes of the baseball diamond--the Chicago White Sox. Long eclipsed by the north-side Cubs, the White Sox dominated the major leagues this year, culminating in one of the most awesome displays of mettle as they shut down opponent after opponent in the playoffs.

Mayor Richard J. Daley, a life-long Sox fan, pulled out all of the stops for the city's celebration and the parade itself epitomized the majesty of the city and the selfless nature of the team as it proceeded from the team's stadium at 35th and Shields through a panopoly of Chicago's working class neighborhoods. From Bridgeport to Bronzeville, Chinatown to Pilsen, Little Italy to Greektown and culminating in a ticker tape waltz down the city's financial and governmental strip, LaSalle Street, the players--and more than a handful of corporate sponsors--marched victoriously through the city to lined streets.

According to estimates given by the city, approximately 1.7 million people witnessed the event! In sum, it was a great finale for an excellent season and a fitting tribute to the city, the players, and the White Sox's long-suffering fans.

Congratulations Oswaldo Guillén and the players! As always, Chicago legend Studs Terkel offered insight on the meaning of the Sox win to the city in yesterday's New York Times.

Parading in Chicago didn't stop with the Sox extravaganza. The monthly Critical Mass ride commenced at Daley Plaza at its usual late Friday afternoon time. As a tribute to the legacy of the great US civil rights leader, Rosa Parks, the Mass visited many of the sties of importance in African American history in Chicago.

Its great to see the citizens of Chicago reclaim the streets for a celebration of the city's great cultural and social legacies!

"Sustainable" development in Fulton County?

2005-10-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Metropolitan Atlanta is ground zero of suburban sprawl. Like in other suburban areas throughout North America, the denizens of Atlanta's suburbs have a love/hate relationship with sprawl. They get fed up with the traffic generated by sprawl, elect a governor with a strong regional planning agenda and then promptly dump him when he tries to implement significant policy change. Additionally, as Clark Atlanta University's Robert Bullard has argued, Atlanta's sprawl has the "convenient" side effect of spatially segregating the city's minority population, making it difficult for them to access economic opportunities.

Thus, anytime we hear about efforts in the Atlanta to quell sprawl and develop in a more "sustainable" manner we approach them with a dose of healthy skepticism.

Nevertheless, the Serenbe development in south Fulton County merits some attention. The New York Times recently described the genesis of Serenbe. It seems that local land owners partnered with the Nature Conservancy of Georgia to establish the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance which devised a master plan for over 40,000 acres of largely undeveloped land. The Alliance is promoting condensed development with the protection of significant parcels of greenspace. In order to quell land owners who count on selling their land to developers for a handsome profit, the Alliance persuaded the state legislature to adopt a streamlined "transfer of development" legislation that allows landowners to sell the development rights to their land.

Under the TDR scheme, Fulton County determined that certain undeveloped lands in the area of Serenbe would be eligible for the transfer of development rights. They have also determined that other areas of the county will be eligible for higher-density development.

When a landowner is ready to sell, in exchange for agreeing to protect their undeveloped land they are actually getting development credits that they can sell on the market to a developer in the zone where higher-density is allowed. The idea is that undeveloped land will be saved while higher density will be encouraged elsewhere.

Serenbe is designed in a high density fashion to maximize protected land and insure that areas around will not be subject to rampant development.

It is an interesting scheme, but whether it can be effective in quelling sprawl without significant regional planning is questionable. Nevertheless, there do appear to be some bloggers out there who were impressed enough with Serenbe to buy...

Rebuilding the Gulf Coast

2005-10-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Over the past week there have been numerous stories in the New York Times covering the urban planning and architectural aspects of the rebuilding of Gulf Coast communities damaged by the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

I concur with the folks at theboxtank in their assessment of Nicholas Ourousoff's piece on New Orleans. He offers a healthy skepticism about attempts to turn New Orleans into a theme park caricature of its former self.

There is good reason to be worried. As Naomi Klein has reported, there is a strong fear that rebuilding attempts in New Orleans are likely to be dominated by corporate growth machine interests with a desire to "cleanse" the city of its poor, largely minority residents.

Reporting from Mississippi, today the Times' Robin Pogrebin discusses the recommendations of the Mississippi Renewal Forum--a panel of architects and town planners convened by Governor Haley Barbour and led by New Urbanist guru Andres Duany. The results of the six-day "charette" were pretty predictable. They advocate for the creation of a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly form of redevelopment.

While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with new urbanist design precepts, the entire redevelopment process in both New Orleans and Mississippi has proceeded without input from people displaced by the storm. This exclusion is significant as many people of low socio-economic status are being locked out of important discussions relating to the re-building effort. With decision making ensconced in the hands of elites and ideologically-driven planners like Duany, the theme park vision of reconstruction increasingly seems likely to dominate the new Gulf Coast. Disaster survivor groups that have emerged in the weeks since the storm should certainly have a seat at the table to insure successful reconstruction.
OTB

Toronto Bans Segways

2005-10-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Lawyers for the City of Toronto, thankfully bucking the trend embraced by many of the Western world's urban tourist districts (like Washington [pictured above], Chicago, and Paris), have said "NO" to operating Segways on city streets and sidewalks.

Aside from being an incredibly idiotic and dangerous form of transportation, the Segway is profoundly anti-urban. Swarms of the pesty vehicles inhibit pedestrian circulation due to their size. They transform a space of sociability into a mini-road, converting one of the last spaces designed for humans into a playground for machines. They lack the maneuverability and speed of a bicycle and offer no advantages over walking.

Although there have been reports of an uptick in their popularity due to rising petrol prices, it is highly unlikely that they can eclipse the bicycle as the most ecologically- and economically-friendly forms of urban transport.

linked to Outside the Beltway

New Songdo - EPCOT for the 21st Century?

2005-10-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reports today on the New Songdo City development in South Korea. New Songdo is interesting to look at within the context of the history of utopian planning projects. It is being constructed on reclaimed waterfront in Incheon, about 40 miles south of Seoul.

Billed as a "ubiquitous city," the Times piece focuses on how information technology is going to be permeated throughout the built environment. According to the Times;

A ubiquitous city is where all major information systems (residential, medical, business, governmental and the like) share data, and computers are built into the houses, streets and office buildings.

Given the quick pace of technological change and the comparative slow pace of constructing urban spaces, the digital specifics of the "ubiquitous city" are few and far between. The Times piece--which appeared in the paper's reconstituted "Circuits" section--focused on the predictable issue of urban surveillance that is part and parcel of the increasing power of digital technologies.

More interesting to me, however, are the parallels between New Songdo and urban utopian theorizing and building of yore.

Like George Pullman's eponymous town built in the 1880s, New Songdo is an idealized expression of the values and desires emanating from the dominant forms of political economy at the time. New Songdo fuses the techno-fetishism of the "ubiquitous city" with a full embrace of the major components of globalization: free-markets, linguistic homgenization, and rhetorical promotion of "sustainability."

The town is being financed both by Korean governmental sources and through U.S. capital--most specifically, the New Jersey developer, the Gale Company. Having a foreign developer like Gale invovled represents a fundamental change stemming from International Monetary Fund dictates leveled in the mid-90s that Korea liberalize its investment policies to allow more direct investment of foreign capital.

Like Walt Disney's original vision of EPCOT, New Songdo's planners want the city to be self-sufficient and a site for the latest in technological advances to be developed and implemented.

This will certainly be an interesting project to monitor.

Dealing With Suburban Wildlife: A Tale of Two Suburbs

2005-10-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Increasing metropolitan expansion has had dramatic effects on wildlife habitats, the animals that count on them for survival, and the new human neighbors. How communities deal with the human/animal interactions in suburbia provides an interesting glimpse into cultural values.

First: outside of Atlanta, in the Gwinett County community of Lawrenceville, we have commissioners from the local Water and Sewage Authority considering opening up their land to hunting to get rid of the pesky coyotes, Canadian Geese, and deer seen in the area.

Next: outside of New York, in Westchester County, Cornell University announced they will spend almost half a million dollars to put tracking devices on representatives of the increasingly prevalent coyote population to get an understanding of their migratory habits. Interestingly, they are also going to study human attitudes and behaviors towards the animals.

I am not anti-hunting by any means, but the Cornell project seems much more sensible in its approach towards understanding of the human/ecological dynamic than the folks in Georgia.

linked to Outside the Beltway

Toronto's Garbage Wars

2005-09-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

One of the great benefits of NAFTA for Canadians has been the globalization of trash. When the City of Toronto closed its municipal landfill in 2002, it opted to export its solid waste to its southern neighbor. Luckily, for the good citizens of Toronto, Wayne County, Michigan--hurting from decades of deindustrialization and an anemic economy--gladly accepted the new imports at the Carlton Farms landfill in New Boston, MI.

Operated by Florida-based, Republic Services, the landfill has proved to be quite profitable.

Of course profitability for the company and getting rid of waste for Toronto has come at a price for folks in Michigan. There have been reports of attempts to clandestinely import biohazards which Carlton Farms is not equipped to process. Michigan's Governor Jennifer Granholm has been battling for the last couple of years to restrict Canadian imports, but has been stymied by the federal government for interfering with "international commerce."

Toronto's Mayor David Miller isn't taking any chances. This week it was revealed that Toronto and its neighboring regional municipalities secretly commissioned a report to find other places within Province to dump their trash should the Michigan border become closed.

When the existence of the plan was publicized, many municipalities within the province balked at the prospect at having to take the Greater Toronto Region's garbage and roundly criticized Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for a lack of leadership.

Of course, it would be nice if Toronto and its neighbors adopted a more sustainable approach towards dealing with their waste. Don't hold your breath for this to happen, however. In Newmarket, York Region, there were reports this week from residents that they didn't like the smells emanating from the town's organic recycling facility.

On a related note, followers of this blog may have noticed that we went on an extended hiatus. We are trying to get back in the swing of things this autumn. I'd be curious to know if anyone is actually reading. Please leave comments or email to aflcio@budweiser.com

linked to Outside the Beltway

Settlers Throw Rocks at Occupiers' Bulldozers...

2005-04-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

...in suburban Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune reports of unrest in the Cook County village of Western Springs. At issue are the plans of Dartmoor Homes--a developer of what it calls "luxury estate homes"--to transform an old country club into a McMansion heaven.

It seems that the restless natives, following the defeat of the incumbent Village President John Kravcik in last Tuesday's election, are upset at the lame duck's inability to stop Dartmoor from chopping down trees on the former golf course.

When Dartmoor's bulldozers showed up, citizens cried "foul" and threw rocks at workers. Citizens argued that the disruption of the soil during the deforestation escapade could endanger their health due to the possibility of latent pesticides in the dirt at the former golf course.

I wouldn't expect these Western Springs activists to be joining the ranks of Greenpeace any time soon, however. A look at the website of Save The Timber--Dartmoor's perennial nemesis in their redevelopment efforts--smacks of NIMBYness. In their call-to-arms for a recent failed referendum allowing the Township to purchase more parkspace, they argued that "more open space means less development."

Getting Around With Google

2005-04-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

Following up on the previous post regarding the madness of transportation in suburbia, it appears that the folks over at Google have you covered. Introducing: Google Ride Finder.

If you live in certain metropolitan areas, you can check the real-time whereabouts of taxicabs with links to the specific cab company's website and phone number.

The image above shows the locations of cabs tonight in central Chicago. Looks like south siders needing a ride are out of luck tonight!

For those unfortunate souls unable to afford a cab in Chicago now that the City Council has approved a 12% fare increase for cabbies, the suburban bus authority, Pace, has its own system giving you "real time" location information for its buses.

Getting Around in Suburbia

2005-03-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Two stories from this week's Crain's Chicago Business offer insight into the problems of mobility in suburbia. The first story documents the "targeting" of Hispanics by suburban taxi cab firms. Seeing a market opening amongst the nearly 1 million Latinos living in Chicago's suburbs, it seems that bad public transportation, language barriers, the inability of many recent immigrants to get drivers licenses and insurance, the significant costs of owning and maintaining a vehicle, and the need to travel disparate miles to reach shopping, work, and home are creating an emergent class of Latino private transport entrepreneurs.

Spanish-speaking riders may feel more comfortable catching rides with cabbies with whom they can effectively communicate--fending off the feeling that they may be getting swindled. Like many new immigrant sub-markets, there is a relatively small number of cab owners who, according to the article:

all know each other and have established informal territories that avoid direct competition.

While I can appreciate the filling of a market demand by these new cab companies which are basically micro-enterprises that have low profit margins, this highlights the real tragedy of transportation policy in the U.S. This system flourishes through the exploitation of economically marginal populations who have no other choice than to pay the high price of taxis to get around. A sound transportation policy that takes into account the need for multiple forms of mobility in the suburban setting helps not only the economically marginalized, but everyone since the barrier to access is so low. Currently, public policies overwhelmingly subsidize a privatized form of mobility that has a significant barrier for entry. This seems rather unjust.

To recognize the absurdity of this situation, we now turn to the second article in this week's Crains. Titled, "Mall-to-Mall Trolley Service," it takes us to the Chicago suburban hell of Schaumburg--an infamous "Edge City" similar to those profiled by Joel Garreau in his oft-cited book.

Schaumburg is the home to the mega-Woodfield Mall, an Ikea, a Costco, and other retail establishments typical of the sprawl environment. Of course, these monstrosities were designed almost exclusively for automobile traffic--minimal sidewalks, no street life, oceans of parking lots, etc... With the continuing expansion of commercial development, the planners found that [gasp!] people were driving from one big-box shopping establishment to another--all of which are in relative proximity to one another, but impossible to reach as a pedestrian. The arterial roads have been suffering congestion, making it difficult for shoppers to reach the big boxes.

The solution? "Trolleys"! Now, we're not talking real trolleys here, but rather the absurdist saccharine dress-up game to make a bus not look like a bus. Richard Bascomb, Schaumburg's transportation planner explains the logic of the trolley this way:

"We view the trolleys as a convenience to customers, a fun way to get them from one shopping destination to another," Mr. Bascomb says. "We also see them as a way to get people out of their cars and off the roads."

Well, I guess the Schaumburg shoppers don't see the same opportunity for "fun" or "convenience" that Bascomb intends--as the article indicates, last year's annual ridership was at an anemic 78,000 passengers. To keep this in perspective, this commercial district attracts 100,000 cars PER DAY.

A look at the system map shows why the trolley is an utter failure:

To get from Ikea to the "Streets of Woodfield" would take you a half hour given all of the stops the "trolley" makes--and the traffic. But, hey, it's fun!

Perhaps Schaumburg should nix the trolley project and hire the good folks at Taxi Azteca to shuttle people around? After that, they can then begin to get serious about dealing with the suburban transportation crisis by exploring actual, equitable remedies as opposed to funneling public funds down an ineffective simulacrum.

Obesity and Urban Design

2005-03-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

The fact that there is a link between the built environment and health is old news. That fact should not impair us from mentioning this article appearing in the Boulder Daily Camera discussing current attempts throughout the US at making suburban areas more conducive to walking, biking, and other types of "active living."

While retrofitting suburbia to be more human-centric may be challenging, the more that linkages like this are made the more likely an urban "consciousness" will be regenerated--which is essential to making US urban development more sensible.

Suburban sprawling development is so inane on many levels--health, economics, social connectedness--and the urban alternatives so appealing, I would posit that a talented politician could fuse a mighty appealing vision for American life. Perhaps a Marshall Plan for saving our suburbs could be an attractive mantra?

Limiting Big Box Retail in Arizona

2005-03-26T08:40:00.000-08:00

We are coming up upon the local election season in many areas of the United States. Many municipalities are using these opportunities to present growth management referenda for consideration by local electorates.

One interesting campaign to watch is being waged in Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff is the gateway to the Grand Canyon and--while relatively small in population (appx 55,000)--is the major urban center of northern Arizona.

Proposition 100 would uphold a decision by the City Council to place limits on "big box retail" in the city. Among its provisions:
- Limit new retail development buildings to 125,000 square feet
- Require any proposal that exceeds 75,000 square feet to have a comprehensive impact study commissioned by an independent consultant chosen by the City but paid for by the developer
- Cap the amount of floor space dedicated to non-taxable grocery items at 8%

This proposal is quite reasonable. It will not impede consumer choice or businesses from operating there--Flagstaff currently has a Wal Mart that is 115,000 square feet and a Target that is 96,000 square feet. But it will restrict "super-center" monstrosities that decrease neighboring property values, require significant public infrastructure, and adversely affect local businesses.

Every eligible registered voter in Flagstaff will be receiving ballots in the mail beginning mid-April with all ballots being tabulated by 17 May.

There appears to be a strong base of support for the referendum. But according to recent news reports, the opposition appears to be gearing up for a fight. We will be monitoring the campaign and continue to post updates.

In the interim, for people interested in the issues of big box retail, I highly recommend reading the folks over at theboxtank.

Highway Sues Mall

2005-03-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is suing Chicago Premium Outlets in suburban Kane County. At issue is the level of traffic generated by the mall and an agreement between the developer--Simon Property Group [one of the largest shopping mall developers in the country]--and the Tollway that Simon pay for improvements to facilitate traffic. The Tollway is seeing traffic back up on the off-ramp, generating safety and congestion issues. According to the article they are suing for reimbursement for $5 million that they have spent to improve access to the mall.

On the one hand, one wonders why local planners in Kane County and the Tollway Authority couldn't anticipate these problems since they were pretty much guaranteed by the plan: when you situate a large regional mall next to a restricted access highway, in a low density area, with no alternative forms of transportation, traffic levels are going to increase. Of course, the agreement on which they are suing was supposed to require that Simon pay for the improvements.

Aside from the fact that land use patterns in this typical suburban setting made this type of conflict pretty much inevitable, one must also look at the role of large publicly-traded real estate developers in promoting a sprawling development that depends on massive public subsidies.

Simon seems to demand public money for many of its suburban ventures. In 1999 they received $42 million from Orange County, California for the re-development of Mission Viejo Mall. Currently, they are demanding that the City of Fort Worth, Texas finance road improvements for a planned mall in the northern Alliance area.

Simon's expectations of public subsidies extends into its plans for constructing its corporate headquarters in downtown Indianapolis in the Capitol Commons Plaza. Space in the high-demand and prestigious plaza--which contains the Indiana State Capitol--was actually given to the well-connected firm.

One can recognize the challenge that many municipalities and government agencies may have when dealing with large developers like Simon who routinely wait for litigation before complying with various laws. For the developer, legal challenges are assumed as part of their costs of doing business. Unfortunately, people who live in affected communities have to live with the consequences of companies' exploitation of poor planning.

In Kane County, residents are taking action to preserve their community with a referendum to increase the amount of protected open space in the county. This protection won't solve all of the county's problems, but it certainly represents a new questioning of 50 years of dominant methods of development.

Laurent, SD: New Urbanism & American Sign Language

2005-03-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

A story in yesterday's New York Times discussed the planning process for a proposed new town to be located about 35 miles west of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The new town--named, "Laurent" after the nineteenth century French educator, Laurent Clerc--is intended to be built as a place that takes into account the needs of users of American Sign Language.

Interestingly, the developers of Laurent are squarely situated within the theory and concepts of New Urbanism and Traditional Neighborhood Design. Looking to Andres Duany and Jane Jacobs as inspiration, they invoke a rather utopian notion of "community" and a hefty dose of nostalgia [a look at the developer's concept paper reveals that nineteenth century Martha's Vineyard is a model].

Of course, the appeal to New Urbanist dictates is understandable as the sensibility of walkable, visually appealing environments can accommodate people with diverse capabilities and interests. Like most New Urbanist developments, however, Laurent will most likely be an unwitting contributor to sprawl as the town site is situated right off of Interstate 90 and regional economic realities make it likely that Laurent's residents will have to travel to Sioux Falls and elsewhere for employment.

Also, with it's specific marketing to users of American Sign Language, the town is likely to come under fire from activists who see it as contributing to a further "ghettoization" of people with disabilities.

Nevertheless, the Laurent project is certainly unique and should be seen as a continuation of the long history of American experiments in utopian planning. Marvin Miller, Chief Operating Officer of the town's developer (The Laurent Company), has a blog giving regular updates on the project. If you are interested in participating in the community planning charrette, it will last all week.

Transportation Pork In Focus: Mattoon, Illinois

2005-03-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

The federal transportation bill just passed by the US House of Representatives is of immense importance for metropolitan development. Municipalities and states use money earmarked in the bill (once/if it is passed into law) as matching funds for capital improvement and expansion projects.

Unfortunately, the equations for what constitutes an important transportation project are dictated primarily by each individual representative's self-interest in the absence of a cohesive national transportation policy.

Take the case of Mattoon, Illinois--a small town ( 18,291 pop.) with a declining population in the southern part of the state. Mattoon is represented by Republican Tim Johnson--who just happens to hold a seat on the Highways and Transit subcommittee and is trumpeting his ability to "bring home the bacon." The project in Mattoon entails a $1.6 million expenditure to renovate an Amtrak train station that receives serves four trains per day--for now. The irony, of course, is that the Republican administration's budget is calling for a cessation of funding for Amtrak which will essentially bankrupt the railway.

Thus we face the real possibility that the Mattoon station will be renovated and the train will no longer come--unless the state of Illinois increases its own subsidies to Amtrak. How's that for sensible transportation planning?

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Florida Cities Rethink Welfare for Baseball Teams

2005-03-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Stadia projects are often touted by municipalities as engines of economic development. When it comes to major league professional athletics, team owners exploit this sentiment by making demands on municipal governments to build or rehab facilities under the threat of leaving town.

It seems as if some Florida cities are saying "enough" to these demands. The site of Major League Baseball's spring training Grapefruit League, many Florida towns are starting to refuse the demands of teams to rehab aging stadia.

One major reason for this impending refusal is the increasing value of land in suburban or exurban areas in the state where a sprawl-based low-density development will undoubtedly bring in much more consistent revenue than a baseball stadium that is used for one month each year. The town highlighted in the article--Winter Haven--is situated in the fast-growing Interstate 4 corridor between Orlando and Tampa. In this case, the potential for selling the land to developer that will bring, according to Mayor Mike Easterling, "a Cheesecake Factory, a theater, upscale shops of every description," has more allure than subsidizing an underutilized baseball park.

Of course, the stadium approach to urban & suburban development is still strong in many quarters. In the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, the village just approved a feasibility study to develop an indoor multi-use sporting & entertainment facility which will require $50 million in municipal-guaranteed financing. Unlike many cities who are held hostage to sports teams that threaten to leave if not given massive subsidies, Hoffman Estates is looking to use the arena to attract franchises--specifically expansion teams from the National Lacrosse League and the United Hockey League.

Critics have pointed out that the Allstate Arena--located several miles down Interstate 90 from Hoffman Estates--already hosts the type of events proposed for the new arena. One wonders about the sensibility of this type of suburban development. Fifty million dollars in guaranteed financing could be used for much more innovative projects.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Tollway Charging Reduces Use

2005-03-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the year, the State of Illinois tollway authority doubled the price of tolls on state tollways for vehicles not using automated, pre-paid transponders (I-PASS). These tollways are primarily situated on the urban and exurban fringe of Chicago and act as major carriers of suburban traffic.

Today's Chicago Tribune reports that February's tollway truck traffic was down 9.6% from a year earlier and passenger traffic decreased 3.2%.

By raising tolls for people paying by cash, the tollway authority is trying to encourage people to switch to the I-PASS which, they argue, decreases congestion and minimizes the impact on air quality. Vehicles equipped with an I-PASS can pass through the toll plazas without significantly reducing their speed, diminishing long queues.

The decrease in tollway traffic as an indicator of reduced congestion should be looked at skeptically, however. Much of the reduction can be attributed to vehicles using alternative, non-toll routes that simply displace traffic flows.

While the I-PASS program may be increasing revenue for the tollway system, it is doing very little to address regional mobility issues. It is creating congestion problems for cash-strapped municipalities who now have to contend with increased traffic flows and it is rather inequitable for those citizens who need to travel throughout the region but can't afford to loan the tollway authority money--which is essentially what the pre-paid I-PASS program demands from consumers.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Chicago's Mayor Takes on Congestion

2005-03-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times has an interesting article on the plan that Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley unveiled yesterday to reduce congestion in the city.

A combination of bureaucratic shuffling, 2,800 "smart traffic signals" that respond to traffic flows and give buses more time to get through intersections, and more vigilant towing of parking violators made up the highlights of the plan.

Relying on Federal matching grants, the plan is likely to cost anywhere between $210 million to $700 million over two decades.

According to Daley's press release, the city looked to cities such as Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and London for ideas regarding improving congestion. Of course, one must wonder why in the world some of the United States' most severely congested cities are serving as models for Chicago! London is an important city for Chicago to study. However, London's most innovative policy development--the congestion charge--apparently wasn't considered by Daley.

Also curiously absent was a discussion of improving the city's rapid transit system, operated by the Chicago Transit Authority. Perhaps the controversy currently underway regarding the CTA's decision to temporarily shut the Brown Line made this issue unappealing for Daley who has remained relatively silent on the issue.

It is quite a shame that rapid transit is not part of this equation to relieve congestion given the fact that Chicago's density and current land use policies could support an integrative strategy without too much fiscal pain.

There is also very innovative thinking going on amongst Chicagoans on ways to improve mobility in the city. One of the more interesting examples is Craig Berman's CTA Map for 2055.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

House Transportation Bill Mapped by State

2005-03-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

This is a quick and dirty attempt to provide a state-by-state visualization of the value of federal appropriations for earmarked projects from yesterday's US House of Representatives transportation bill.

Interestingly, Alaska--which happens to be the home state of Transportation committee chairman Don Young--is by far the greatest per capita beneficiary under the House bill at $1,151. The second highest per capita is Oregon at $83. Because of the significant outlier status of Alaska it distorts the quintiles a bit on the map.

I hope to do a more detailed analysis of a state or two to look at the urban vs. suburban bias of this bill.

Click on the photo for a larger version (flickr registration may be required). A big thanks is owed to Taxpayers for Common Sense for sharing their dataset.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

US House Passes Transport Bill

2005-03-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3, The Transportation Legacy Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU) by a vote of 417-9.

As the New York Times reports, when it comes to bringing money home to districts, the partisan rancor that usually divides the House quickly fades. The bill authorizes $284 billion worth of guaranteed spending over six years on highway, transit, and safety projects. Last year's Senate version of the bill authorized $318 billion over the same period, making the prospects for an interesting political showdown between both Republican-controlled chambers and Bush likely.

Whatever happens with the actual funding level, there are certainly going to be important ramifications for urban and suburban development over the next several years once an agreement is hammered through.

I haven't done a thorough analysis of the projects funded by TEA-LU, but as in previous years, transit takes a back seat to highway spending. Given this fact, low-density, sprawling development is getting continued subsidy in this bill.

Interestingly, many of the "transit" projects funded by the bill are intimately tied to automobility--there seems to be a high number of "park and ride" projects as opposed to mass transit expansion and improvements.

Take, for instance, the case of Illinois. Of the $31.9 million authorized for transit projects, more than half ($17 mil.) is going to develop "park and ride" facilities. Of that figure, half is allocated to just TWO parking structures located in the suburban district of House Speaker Dennis Hastert. There is no money earmarked for the expansion of the most used transit system in the state--Chicago's CTA. This comes at a time when the CTA is discussing drastic service cuts.

Of course, the real problem of suburban development lies in land use policy that demands low density and auto-centric mobility. But this bill does little to prod states and locales to change their behavior in this regard. The sum result will likely be continued federal subsidies for sprawling development and increasing fiscal stress on local governments to support this rather inefficient pattern of suburban expansion.

The independent watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, has state-by-state listings of earmarked projects on their website. Here are some examples of local coverage of projects recommended for funding in Boston, Nebraska, San Jose, and Colorado.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

New Sprawl Documentary Airs in Canada

2005-03-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

A recent documentary making the festival circuit is being shown tomorrow (Wed., Mar. 9 @ 10:00pm est) on the Canadian network Vision TV. The End of Suburbia is the work of Toronto director, Gregory Greene and explores the tenuous prospects for urban sustainability given the growing concern over impending oil depletion.

I have not seen the film yet, but it promises to be an interesting and provocative analysis of suburban development.

The Toronto Star has a brief review that places the film's analysis squarely within the "peak oil" camp. Simply put, the sprawling nature of North American urban development has been contingent on extremely cheap and ample supplies of oil. These supplies are dramatically dwindling, requiring an urgent need to rethink urban and transportation policy--something that is not being undertaken by most politicians.

Among those interviewed in the film are gadfly James Howard Kunstler and West Coast New Urbanist architect Peter Calthorpe.

Canadian readers: please feel free to post reviews!

Millennium Park Photographing Update

2005-02-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

Ben Joravsky published a piece in yesterday's Chicago Reader following up on his story earlier this month that discussed the harassment of professional photographers and journalists at Chicago's Millennium Park.

As I recounted in an earlier post, individuals assumed to be professional photographers were accosted by park security guards and asked to purchase permits in order to shoot photos. A representative from the park indicated that the sculptures, installations, and architecture were copyrighted and required either a city permit or authorization from the creator before they could be photographed or reproduced.

According to Joravsky's followup article, the creators of the park's "enhancements" own the copyrights, but they are not paid royalties when permits are purchased. The real reason for the city's shakedown is that the city has exclusive licensing rights for selling images of Millennium Park.

Apparently, the city does not want to endure competition from entrepreneurs who may go and photograph Millennium Park enhancements and place the images on postcards, t-shirts, etc... Some use of public space, huh?

chicago.metblogs.com has scanned in Joravsky's latest article. The relevant post's permalink seems to be malfunctioning, so you may have to go to their main page to get to the Feb. 10,2005 posting with the article.

More Chicago Park News

2005-02-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

In the latest saga of the corporatization of Chicago's public spaces, Chicagoist has a post on the city's deal with radio and billboard monopolist, Clear Channel to build a temporary concert venue on Northerly Island--the former home of Meigs Field.

Meigs Field was the small, executive airport that Chicago's Mayor Daley rendered inoperable in March 2003 by sending bulldozers in the middle of the night to destroy the runway under the auspices of protecting the city from terrorism. Of course the airport was not part of Daniel Burnham's brilliant 1909 lakefront plan. Daley had wanted to change uses when the 50-year lease for the airport expired in 1996. Repeated legal wrangling and obstruction from downstate politicians and special interest aviation groups stifled efforts to close the airport.

Although Mayor Daley's tactics and rationale for closing the airport raised some eyebrows, the airport was clearly a poor use of public space on the city's lakefront. The Lake Michigan Federation has a great proposal to turn the space into a nature preserve which, conceptually, has the support of Daley.

The new agreement is for Clear Channel to operate the concert facility for three years with two one-year extension options. In contrast to concerts at the Grant Park pavilion, Clear Channel's facility will charge for tickets with the city getting a share of the revenues.

While it is understandable for the city to find new sources of revenue to develop the park, given the potential for profitmaking in this venture, there is a strong possibility that the vision for a permanent, public-use, nature park could be compromised.

Bush Budget on Transport - A First Glance

2005-02-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

Today the Bush Administration unveiled its 2006 budget request to Congress. As we have discussed earlier, the state of federal transportation spending---essential to urban and suburban development--has been uncertain for more than a year.

In today's budget request, the administration seems to have relented on earlier threats to veto a transportation reauthorization bill that exceeded $256 billion over six years. The administration is now setting forth $283.9 billion which exceeds the amount the House of Representatives approved during last year's stalled negotiations ($275 billion) but still falls short of the Senate preference ($318 billion).

It is good to see the administration up its committments, but there are still numerous unanswered questions. A statement by White House Budget Director Joshua Bolten at his press conference makes me cautious:

The amount we are carrying in the budget for a six-year highway bill is $283.9 billion, which reflects an understanding between the administration and the leadership on what a reasonable bill that meets our infrastructure needs, but also ensures that the trust fund, the highway trust fund is able to carry out its obligations into the future, without requiring money being brought over from the general fund.

Essentially Bolten is saying, "don't expect any money from the general fund to finance transportation." There are serious questions about relying on the Highway Trust Fund for federal transportation spending. Much of that fund comes from user fees and fuel taxes. There is significant worry that those fees will not be enough to meet needs--especially as fuel efficiency increases.

By ruling out discretionary spending on transportation, we can look forward to a crumbling highway system and inadequate public transit systems. We will continue to monitor transportation funding as it winds its way through Congress.

Voting begins in Edinburgh on Congestion Charge

2005-02-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

(Edinburgh traffic jam--supplied by FreeFoto.com)

Over the next two weeks, residents of the City of Edinburgh, Scotland will be voting on whether the city should initiate a congestion charge scheme. London has had such a scheme for about two years. In London, drivers must pay £5 to enter the center city between 7:00am and 6:30pm, Monday-Friday. Money earned through the congestion charge is put largely into public transportation improvements.

While the London scheme remains controversial, some studies suggest that it has reduced vehicular traffic within the central zone by as much as 15% and bus ridership has increased dramatically.

In Edinburgh, the proposed scheme is a bit more complex. There are two cordons--one around the city center and the other around the perimeter of the city. The charge would be in effect for the inner cordon from 7:00am-6:30pm and the outer cordon from 7:00am-10:00am, Monday-Friday. The £2 charge would allow you to go through each cordon throughout the day.

The citizens of Edinburgh appear to be less-than enthusiastic about the scheme, with polls suggesting 65% of the city's residents opposing the scheme. Mingus Linklatter, columnist at the Scotsman, sees a serious problem with congestion in Edinburgh, but has little faith in the municipal leadership in developing transportation alternatives given their track record in dismantling rail service in years past. Some local affiliates of the leftist Liberal Democrats are breaking from their national party's pro-charge stand, by making similar claims of lack-of-confidence in Edinburgh's Labour-headed council.

The mode of election--postal ballots--has also been criticized, as nearly 12% of eligible voters who had taken themselves off the municipal junk mail list, may not receive ballots.

Should the tally be supportive of the scheme, the council would still have to get approval from the Scottish Executive before the plan would go into effect. The outcome may be portentous, as other municipalities in Great Britain, are being pressured into considering congestion schemes of their own.

*Update* Take a look at Richard Bloomfield's blog and Freedom and Whisky for debate on the charge in the Scottish blogosphere.

Greenbelt in Toronto?

2005-02-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

The McGuinty government in Ontario is pushing one of the most ambitious "smart growth" initiatives ever seen in North America. The Standing Committee on General Government held several public meetings this past week to get public comment on the Greenbelt Act of 2004.

The act would add 1 million acres of protected land to the Golden Horseshoe region of southern Ontario surrounding Toronto, limiting suburban sprawl and protecting the Oak Ridges Moraine--an important groundwater recharge area stretching north of the Greater Toronto Area.

If the act is passed, over 1.8 million acres around Toronto will be protected from future urbanization.

The main opposition groups tend to be farmers who argue that the boundaries for protection often divide farms and restrict landowners' ability to sell their land for development.

Many environmental groups have supported the McGuinty plan, but not without reservations. One of the largest coalitions--Ontario Greenbelt Alliance--includes local environmental and conservation groups and larger advocacy organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace.

They are arguing that the amount of protected acreage needs to be increase and fear that the act could allow large infrastructure projects--like roads--to be built within the supposed areas of protection.

Furthermore, groups like the Ontario Nature Federation, believe that the plan has too many loopholes thus allowing land to be exempted from protection. There is also an exemption for mining activities in protected land, which frightens some environmentalists.

Given the fact that McGuinty's Liberal Party has a healthy majority in Ontario's Legislative Assembly it is likely that the Greenbelt measure will be passed in spite of criticism from both the Tories and the New Democrats.

Regardless, the issue of sprawl in Ontario is a serious public policy subject on many levels. A recent Statistics Canada report identified the region's urban growth as contributing to the exponential decline of farmland; while the Ontario College of Family Physicians has just published a report indicating that sprawl in Ontario can negatively affect public health.

Below is a map from the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance that shows their recommendation for expanding the protected areas proposed by the Greenbelt Act. You may click on the picture to get to a larger version (registration with flikr may be required).

(Linked with Outside the Beltway)

Amy Applebaum on Philip Johnson

2005-02-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

Amy Applebaum, of the Washington Post, has an excellent column wondering why architect Philip Johnson's active support for fascism was barely noted in the many obituaries published following his death.

Johnson didn't merely sympathize, like Lindbergh, or make a juvenile joke, like Prince Harry. On the contrary, Johnson helped organize a U.S. fascist party. He worked on behalf of the Nazi sympathizer and radio broadcaster, Father Charles E. Coughlin.

TEA 21 - Reauthorization Update February 2005

2005-02-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in a post last year, this blog will provide periodic updates on the reauthorization of the US Federal Government's multi-year highway & transit funding bill, TEA-21.

It was not surprising that Bush failed to mention transportation reauthorization in his state of the union speech as it has been an extremely low priority for his administration and represents a possible confrontation with the Republican-controlled Congress.

Just last week, a group of Republican Senators wrote a letter to the President indicating their commitment to pass a reauthorization bill. Democratic Senator, Dick Durbin, also sent his own letter to the President arguing for adequate transportation financing in his budget outlining discretionary spending, due to be presented to Congress next week.

Although a bill has not been formally introduced in either chamber, it is expected that the Senate will still be asking for $318 billion over six years; the House will be asking $275 billion. The White House had indicated last year that anything over $256 billion will be vetoed.

The next few weeks will be critical as bills get introduced and funneled through committees. Rep. Dan Young, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has indicated he wants the House version of the legislation to be introduced on the floor by March 7.

The fact that it has taken nearly a year and a half to deal with reauthorization is unconscionable. One aspect to watch closely will be how transit projects fare in the reauthorization & budget process.

Discretionary funding for transit has fallen over the past budget year from $1.4 billion to $965 million. Because TEA-21 had a guaranteed limit for transit funding, the Highway Trust Fund has had to pick up the slack due to decreases in general fund appropriations.

It will not be surprising to see an assault on the guaranteed funding levels for transit during this round of the reauthorization debate to free up more money for highways.

If this scenario unfolds, it could be disastrous to sustainable metropolitan development as you will see continuing sprawl, transit cutbacks, and a quickly deteriorating highway system where maintenance costs will be neglected. You may also see increasing local and state taxes to meet citizen demand for transportation improvements.

Whatever happens, it is likely to be ugly and a step back for engendering livable communities.

In the interim, Congressional inaction is still holding up innovative urban transportation projects like the Chickamauga Greenway in Chattanooga.

(Linked with Outside the Beltway)

City, Suburbs, and Dolls

2005-02-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

Via Gapersblock and Chicagoist, toy maker Mattel, has introduced a new doll to its American Girl product line. For those unfamiliar with American Girl, it represents product synergy at its best. Mattel produces dolls, matching clothes for girls, books, and other products that develop a "personality" for the doll.

The story of the new doll, Marisol, is causing a bit of controversy. She is from Chicago's Mexican-American community of Pilsen who is having to move to the suburban community of Des Plaines. According to accounts of the book, Pilsen is referred to as "no place to grow up," rife with violence, and a place from where reasonable people want to flee.

While the caricature of Mexican-Americans exploits discredited stereotypes ("Marisol was born to dance") and Pilsen's cultural and economic diversity seems to be downplayed, the story of Marisol does tap into an often-ignored aspect of metropolitan development: a complex reversal of the "white flight" dynamic that fueled post-war suburbanization.

Many accounts of the 2000 census figures show the increasing ethnic and cultural diversification of the suburbs. Much of this is due to gentrification schemes that price low income people out of their communities. Higher income--often white--residents are displacing low income renters. Pilsen is one of the areas in Chicago where gentrification is quickly coming. With the redevelopment of University Village, Chicago's southwest side is ripe for significant transformation. The story of Marisol, in turn, may be the template for forced displacement.

The Copyrighting of Public Space

2005-01-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

Following up on my post discussing the uselessness of Frank Gehry's "BP Bridge" at Chicago's new Millennium Park, a story in today's printed version of the Chicago Reader speaks to some other problems with the park.

This time the issues are not so much with the design, but with its use. In keeping with the contemporary trends of privatizing public space, Millennium Park is a copyrighted public space.

The Reader recounts the experience of photojournalist Warren Wimmer's attempts to photograph Anish Kapoor's sculpture, Cloud Gate (more commonly known as "the Bean"). When Wimmer set up his tripod and camera to shoot the sculpture, security guards stopped him, demanding that they show him a permit. Wimmer protested, replying that it's absurd that one needs to pay for a permit to photograph public art in a city-owned park.

Ben Joravsky, the author of the Reader article, attempted to contact park officials for an explanation and received a response from Karen Ryan, press director for the park's project director:

"The copyrights for the enhancements in Millennium Park are owned by the artist who created them. As such, anyone reproducing the works, especially for commercial purposes, needs the permission of that artist."

Hence, Millennium Park--a nascent destination for countless citizens and tourists that was built with $270 million in city funds--is slowly emerging as Chicago's most privatized public space. Photographers beware!

**Update** I've scanned in the original article from the Reader below. Click on the thumbnails to go to my Flickr page for larger versions.

**Update--Feb. 13, 2005** Please see this recent post for updated discussion of the city's interest in enforcing the copyrights of the park's "enhancements."

Architect Philip Johnson Dead

2005-01-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

Johnson lead a long and contradictory life. His extended flirtation with fascism and the Hitler regime was unconscionable.

From the standpoint of urban development his modernist and, later, post-modernist sensibilities shared one problematic characteristic: a general disregard of the context of the urban landscape. My "favorite" Johnson travesty is the Town Hall in Celebration, Florida with its superfluous columns that valorize the lack of democracy in the corporate planned community.

Aside from the authoritarian political statement made by the building, it fails on the level of engendering usable public space and relating to the larger urban fabric. Whereas many of the other buildings in downtown Celebration enhance the pedestrian experience and create spaces of interaction and leisure, Johnson's building is a fortress, off-putting to passersby.

"Shared Space" and Road Design

2005-01-23T11:53:00.000-08:00

James Joyner at Outside the Beltway comments on a NY Times article on Hans Monderman's "shared space" traffic design experiments in the Netherlands. Instead of relying on traffic signals, Monderman removes them, which creates a more anarchic space and one where drivers slow down and are more alert due to the action and unpredictability of the urban landscape.

Joyner suggests by his title that "unregulated" roads may be better.

It is important to remember that there is no such thing as an "unregulated road." What Monderman is engaged in is establishing more sensible design practices.

Most new roads built in the US--primarily in suburban areas--are designed specifically for automobiles. They are also designed specifically to handle speeds in excess of the posted speed limits. Your typical 4 lane suburban arterial road may have a posted speed limit of 45mph, but it is engineered to accommodate speeds up to 65mph or higher.

What Monderman has done is not to do away with regulation, but, rather, has designed the roadway differently with an eye towards multiple forms of mobility. He has narrowed roads, encouraged on-street parking, and put up visual "distractions" like trees and flowers to make the landscape diverse and give drivers more reason to be aware of their surroundings. He has also resisted calls to widen roads to accommodate more traffic.

Monderman accepts a simple principle that could be useful for planners in the United States to adopt: urban space should be shared and diverse in function. In order to accomplish planning on this level, there needs to be a clear commitment to multi-modal forms of mobility in our funding and planning processes. Due to the entrenchment of an automotive mindset in the US, this will be a difficult principle to realize in practice.

Hazards of Sprawl

2005-01-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

The recent mudslides in Southern California reiterate the long-standing critiques of suburban development that argue that environmental realities of diverse landscapes are frequently ignored, causing areas of human settlement to be subject to environmental disasters. Rather than thinking of the damage caused by mudslides simply as the result of unfortunate "acts of god," we should rather note the poor planning and land use guidelines that support poor development decisions.

The USGS has developed a sophisticated prediction and warning GIS system that can provide data identifying hazardous areas, providing ample information policymakers need to make sensible decisions about rebuilding and exurban expansion in mountainous regions.

In addition to dramatic "natural" disasters like mudslides, it is important not to forget the more banal hazards that are being exacerbated in exurban mountainous regions. A recent AP story points out the increasing traffic usage on rural and mountain roads as people use them as alternatives to freeways. While the article mentions the push to make "safety improvements" on mountain roads to keep up with growth, given the fact that such expansion will undoubtedly require changes in the landscape, it seems as if this activity may engender future hazards in the form of landslides.

A better solution would be to minimize the amount of development in ecologically-sensitive areas while at the same time investing public transportation dollars into policies that create multiple forms of mobility, rather than privileging the automobile.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Oil and the Future of Urbanism

2005-01-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press is reporting that the idea of "peak oil" is moving into the mainstream. The "peak oil" thesis, according to the article, corresponds to the belief that global oil production is on the decline and that policymakers need to urgently address what could become a significant crisis.

I am not sure how "mainstream" the peak oil thesis is--at least from the perspective of its articulation in the dominant political discourse--but certainly knowledgeable observers (including independent analysts contracted by the US Department of Energy) believe that there is cause for concern.

The article reports on a recent conference on the subject held in Yellow Springs, Ohio where the keynote speaker, Richard Heinberg, argued that the crisis:

"means the undermining of the whole way of suburban life that has been developed in America"

As a remedy, some participants argued for what curiously sounds like a revision of Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City. According to the article, one participant "sees the suburbs being replaced by small, self-sufficient communities - many in the country - that use alternate energy sources and grow their own food."

The immense appetite for fossil fuels in North America is certainly unsustainable. However, the "back-to-the-land" remedy seems insufficiently capable for being the basis of sound public policy.

An article posted in the Pittsburg, KS Morning Sun entitled, "Agriculture for Urbanites," presents a possible opening for developing a sustainable urbanism. The main focus of discussion is how agriculture is being introduced into the curriculum of urban schools. While any attempt to "ruralize the city" is as futile as Wright's vision to "civilize the countryside," plans that creatively connect people with sources of sustenance may engender new types of thinking that blur distinctions between "urban" and "rural," causing a type of urbanism to emerge that recognizes the importance of ecological health in the development of metropolitan areas.

This type of "new urbanism" would eschew both the nostalgia of "back-to-the-land" movements and that of the Traditional Neighborhood Design paradigm to create urban forms that address the realities of shrinking energy supplies and long-standing patterns of land use in such a way that is germane to a sensible response to emerging urban challenges.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Snow closes Chicago's Millennium Park Bridge

2005-01-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

The Frank Gehry-designed "BP Bridge" at Millennium Park in Chicago has been closed due to snow. The bridge, which connects the park with the eastern section of Grant Park, is made of a Brazilian hardwood that could be damaged by applying the ubiquitous salt that is used in Chicago to prevent pedestrian slippage.

One would think that an architect of Gehry's skill would recognize the climatological particularities of Chicago and the ways in which Chicagoans negotiate with the harsh winter climate.

Perhaps this could be an opening for the City of Chicago to consider more environmentally-friendly anti-slippage agents, as the salt is especially corrosive.

In other Millennium Park news, the Sun-Times reports on new changes to the 6-month old park.

Class and Exurban Transition

2005-01-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

Last month's arson at the Hunters Brooke subdivision in Charles County, Maryland gained national media attention. Destroying 26 houses in a largely unoccupied site of new construction, there was immediate speculation as to the motives of the perpetrators.

Environmental activists were first suspected as similar acts of arson in Colorado, Arizona, and California, had been perpetrated by individuals claiming allegiance to the "Earth Liberation Front." The development of Hunters Brooke had been criticized by the Sierra Club as it has destroyed a sensitive wetland habitat.

A competing theory regarding who set fire to Hunters Brooke speculated that it was the action of local white supremacists who were trying to intimidate African-Americans from settling in the county.

Today's New York Times has an interesting article that does a good job at exploring the complexity of exurban sprawl through the example of the Hunters Creek Arsonists.

Six men in their twenties have been charged with the incident. While reports indicate that some of the accused who were taken into custody made racist remarks, the article suggests that their motives were more complicated.

Many seemed to be long-time, working class residents of a county whose growth was bringing with it a significant change in both demographic makeup without an expansion of jobs that paid decent wages.

The exurban fringe--where land use has been quickly transforming from agricultural to upscale housing--is the site for a host of socio-economic, cultural and ecological challenges. In the case of Charles County, the reaction of these young men in the face of change was to engage in a pointless and materially destructive act.

Planners and policymakers in exurban areas should recognize the potential explosiveness of the dynamism of growth and seek ways to develop open processes of planning that address the impact of limited economic opportunities and ecological damage. Keeping social equity, diversity, and ecological sustenance at the center of discussions surrounding exurban change could minimize anti-social reactions to urban growth and make more sustainable communities.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Finding Funds for Roads: the Referenda?

2005-01-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

Lake County, Illinois encompasses the northern suburbs of Chicago, situated between Cook County and the Wisconsin state line. In the last decennial census, it was one of the fastest growing counties in the state.

While the eastern part of the county has several established pre-War suburbs and cities, the western portion was primarily agricultural and has been the site of much of the recent growth. Investments in the transportation infrastructure have not kept up with the growth and the county has been scurrying to meet residents' complaints about congestion.

One way politicians have been dealing with the gap between funding for infrastructure needs and citizen demands has been to propose tax increases to be approved via popular referenda. While it is often assumed that people are unwilling to vote to increase their own taxes, there are numerous recent examples of voters approving transportation plans. If a plan is thoughtfully conceived and capable of enhancing mobility--like the People's Transportation Plan approved by voters in Miami in 2002--voters may be open for approving a tax increase.

The leaders of Lake County, however, have not been as lucky. Last March, the County Commission put before the voters a referendum to increase the sales tax for general, unspecified road improvements which failed miserably. This year, the Daily Herald reports, they are back to the drawing board. This time, they are planning on specifying the road projects to be funded in the hope that this will persuade voters to approve the tax increase.

It is laudable that the commission is providing some transparency to the proposed spending process. However, I am expecting the measure to once again fail primarily because it restricts its focus simply to road widening. Transportation is a function of land use and without land use reform, road widening projects are rather Sisyphean. Instead, the County Commission should consider a referendum that funds its Year 2020 Transportation Priority Plan which calls for a mulitmodal approach to transportation development. It doesn't necessarily get to the crux of the land use problem, but its multimodal approach may strike voters as a wise alternative to the interminable widening of roads.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Where are the most dangerous intersections in Illinois?

2005-01-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

...according to the Chicago Sun Times, "the state's top 11 interchanges with the most accidents were in Chicago's suburbs."

This, of course is not surprising, as nearly all of these intersections are situated in long-established, post-War, auto-centric suburbs. Rather than the exurban areas of high population growth, these are places where the design and planning decisions of 40 years ago are showing little in the way flexibility.

Elmhurst, the site of the state's most dangerous intersection (North Ave. & IL 83) is a good example. Low density, segmented functionality of land use has been the rule in the town since the 1950s making transportation development essentially constrained to increasing automobile capacity. The growth of communities miles west of Elmhurst is putting stress on the massive North/83 intersection. The population of Elmhurst has remained stagnant at 42,000 since 1990 while its most dangerous intersection accomodates more than 100,000 vehicles daily.

If you visit the Sun Times' page you will see an interactive graphic that provides maps of each of the intersections. One commonality among many of the intersections in the Top 10 is the fact that they are situated right off the clover-leaf exits of restricted access highways.

This brings up an interesting fact regarding interstate and toll highway systems: they tend to externalize the costs associtated with the risk that is requisite for their efficient functioning. While the highways themselves are generally safe, the places where you embark or disembark are more risky and the public service costs of dealing with accidents and their aftermath are borne by general municipal funds rather than by the state or individual users.

(Linked with Outside the Beltway)

Andrés Duany on the problems of Contemporary Architecture

2005-01-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

John Massengale posts an interesting brief commentary by architect Andrés Duany:

The problem inherent in the contemporary architectural situation is not that it is modern, but that it is avant garde. The relentless pursuit of the unprecedented undermines two essential roles of architecture: the collective endeavor that is required for an urbanism; and the establishment of a transmissible body of knowledge....Ours must be a deeply serious pursuit of an ethical architecture engaged in the important issues that confront our society."

I am hesitant to crtiticize Duany too much since I am not sure of the particular context of his remarks. I do, however, agree wholeheartedly with his support for "urbanism" as a "collective" endeavor.

The assumption guiding this critique is the fact that so much of the suburban built environment is comprised of an aggregation of disparate elements that are planned and developed without regard to the local climate, landscape, neighboring buildings, or environment. The central credo of the New Urbanism is to reverse this trend.

This brings me to one of the persisting questions surrounding the efficacy of the New Urbanism--which is not entirely their fault. Namely, how can we engage in urbanism as a collective effort when our current market-based system of metropolitan development is structurally inimical to (certain types of) collective planning? Given the power of the real estate and development industries at local levels (especially suburban), the obstacles seem exceedingly daunting to overcome.

Maybe Duany's "transferable body of knowledge" could provide the germ of change: a reprofessionalization of architecture that privileges ethics over sheer pursuit of profit.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Bikes vs. Segway

2005-01-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

The Missouri Bicycle News reports that the city of Columbia has purchased bicycles for their public works employees to be "used for experiencing the riders perspective when designing roadways or intersections and when evaluating locations that have been identified as potentially unsafe."

Designing safe, multi-use roadways is a well-studied phenomenon and it seems silly to think that engineers need to ride bikes to practice effective design--a thorough study of John Forester's book, Bicycle Transportation would certainly be sufficient.

Nevertheless, utilizing bicycles as transportation options for local government staff should be promoted.

Police have been doing this for years--although the recent trend by many big-city police departments using the ridiculous Segway should be of concern.

Never mind the fact that Segways don't add much aesthetically to the urban landscape, bicycles are much more versatile and inexpensive. More public servants on cycles will also improve the general awareness of bikes as efficient forms of transportation. Let's hope that the engineers in Columbia, MO translate their new commitment to multi-modal transportation into sensible road design.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Detroit Establishes "Blight Court"

2005-01-01T14:49:00.003-08:00

Detroit
Click for larger version.

AP reports that Detroit is following in the lead of Chicago in the establishment of a "blight court."

It is essentially an administrative court that has significant legal powers to fine, garnish wages, place liens, and other penalties on property owners who do not meet code violations.

This is a great idea, since previously, complaints about specific properties had to work their way through the regular municipal courts. Criminal courts in the city are overburdened and these types of cases were often not a high priority.

Now, community residents can have a more responsive forum to penalize irresponsible landlords. This is especially hopeful for Detroit--a city with a remarkable architectural heritage, but whose urban landscape is a pretty poor state of decay.

Abandoned and unkempt properties can kill a neighborhood--particularly when there is not a high proportion of local, residential property owners. For many low income residents of Detroit where decent paying jobs are limited, homeownership is often out of reach. Banks are also less enthusiastic about providing mortgages in distressed neighborhoods.

If local residents have the ability to get city government to enforce code violations--which the "blight court" is designed to accomplish--it can contribute to the revitalization of Detroit's neighborhoods.

Above is a map of Detroit's percentage of vacant properties by census tract with the darker green cooresponding to the higher percentage of vacant properties. If you click on the image to make it larger, you can clearly see spatial concentration of these blighted neighborhoods in the center city--something that should come as no surprise as anyone who has visited those neighborhoods. The darkest green areas have between 40% & 57% vacant/abandoned properties!

* Update* (Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Smart Growth and Fairfax County, VA

2004-12-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

A recent Washington Post article details what will be a typical trend in suburban politics over the next few years as suburban municipalities deal with the consequences of decades of unmitigated low-density growth.

Fairfax County was one of the protypical "Edge Cities" memorialized in Joel Garreau's influential book on the subject. Located just outside the DC beltway, it exemplifies the low-density, auto-centric, inefficient land use patterns of contemporary suburbia.

Recently, the county's Board of Supervisors has been taking a higher density, mixed use approach towards redevelopment--specifically around transit stops.

While this policy shift is long overdue as it streamlines the urban infrastructure and expands transportation choices, there is opposition from some long term residents who are worried that this will "urbanize the county."

Opposition, however, is unlikely to gain any traction for two reasons. First, land values have skyrocketed in many "inner ring" suburbs making high-density condominium developments attractive to real estate interests who hope to profit by people's interest in living close to work and public transportation amenities. Secondly, in an era of increasing costs of maintaining municipal infrastructure, decreasing federal and state funds, and anti-tax sentiment, there are really no viable alternatives to municiplaities other than to encourage high-density growth. This type of development generates more tax revenue and costs less (comparatively) to maintain.

It is somewhat ironic that the "wave of the future" in suburban development is actually an adoption of the longstanding elements of successful urbanism.

(Linked with Outside the Beltway)

The Poverty of Edge Cities

2004-12-30T13:21:00.000-08:00

As I indicated yesterday, transportation policy at the federal level in the US is moving towards placing greater burden on state & local governments as well as individual users.

The same trend is happening in Canada where the provincial governments are "downloading" expenses to municipalities.

Frank D'Amico--a former city councilor in Hamilton, Ontario--has an interesting op-ed piece that shows how many of Ontario's edge cities are facing more financial burdens as provincial funding has dried up while the costs for maintaining sewers, roads, sidewalks, etc.. continue to increase.

Edge cities are hit particularly hard because of the sprawling land use which results in inefficient use of public resources.

On a somewhat related note, James Howard Kunstler takes issue with a recent New York Times piece extolling the urban virtues of Las Vegas.

Kunstler observes that, like the meretricious nature of Vegas' economic base of gambling, the long term sustainability of Vegas' growth is questionable. Situated in a desert, built in a sprawling, low density fashion, Vegas relies on two things for its functioning: ample water supply & low fossil fuel prices.

With the Colorado slowly drying up and the global demand for dwindling supplies of fossil fuels continuing, the long term future for the Western metropolis will either require significant increases in taxes or a transformation in land use and environmental conservation.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

A Window into the Bush Administration's Transportation Policy

2004-12-29T11:39:00.000-08:00

A recent op-ed published on planetizen by some of the architects of Bush's transportation policy is of interest as it provides a window into the administration's approach to urban and suburban development.

They begin their commentary by acknowledging the "fiscal dilemma" facing the federal government which assumes that:

Deficit reduction and spending discipline will be the Administration's and GOP congressional leaders' top priorities during the next session of Congress. Discretionary spending for non-security programs is expected to rise only about one percent next year.

Of course, "spending discipline" has not been the pattern of the administration thus far--given its anemic economic policy, its tax cuts for people in high income brackets and its (very expensive) foreign policy of military expansionism. A "fiscal dilemma" is undoubtedly the the rationale given by the administration for offering such a low figure in its SAFETEA legislation, but it is important to remember that the fiscal constraints were largely created by misguided policies in other areas of domestic & foreign policy and that transportation systems are being asked to bear the brunt of these failures.

In order to get beyond the "fiscal dilemma," the authors argue, states should be given more autonomy in allowing tolls to be levied on interstate highways. This money could then be mandated for use only for highway improvements and maintenance.

They see the future of transportation funding as shifting the burden from governmental sources to user fees.

While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with user fees, relying on them for financing the major infrastructural basis of our local and national economies is a very risky--and extremely inequitable--proposition.

Many state budgets are in crisis--partly due to federal policies that shift more spending burdens on states--making it likely that you would see states set up tolls to meet highway construction and maintenance costs.

As metropolitan areas have expanded utilizing low-density development and commuting times have risen, people of lower income will be more severely burdened by tolls if they have to travel long distances to work.

A more equitable way of meeting the "fiscal dilemma" might be generating congestion charges like they have done in London.

I will be exploring this policy in more depth in the coming weeks as Edinburgh votes on whether to establish the controversial charges in February.

For the uninitiated, a congestion charge is a toll that is levied against drivers when they drive into a certain area of a metropolis that is burdened by congestion. Unlike the toll scheme imagined by the Bush team, the revenues collected are put into more efficient transportation modes, like buses, rather than for highway expansion.

While the tax is regressive (currently it's £5), the money is utilized to build up a public system of transportation that is accessible to people regardless of income. Because of its expense, more people are inclined to take public transit, increased ridership offers more funds from the farebox and the added funds from the congestion charge provides the public transit agency more resources with which to improve the system.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Ontario's Growth Management Challenge

2004-12-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Provincial government of Ontario is currently considering dramatic growth management legislation. Entitled the Places to Grow Act, it would give the Provincial government the authority to oversee regional planning in the high-growth areas of Ontario--notably the "Golden Horseshoe" region that stretches around northern and western Lake Ontario.

Like the United States, Canada has a decentralized system of land use and transportation planning. Municipalities have quite a bit of autonomy to institute policies relating to these areas of metropolitan development.

With autonomy, however, comes a propensity for uncontrolled growth. Municipalities institute polices, approve residential and commercial developments, widen roads, and engage in other planning efforts that can have affects on neighboring cities and villages. The lack of coordination is a major contributor to sprawling-type of development.

Of course, effective regional planning, often requires competing municipalities that share a common future to give up a degree of autonomy--a prospect that is politically controversial.

Ontario's Places to Grow legislation will give the Provincial government a significant amount of power to enforce growth boundaries and demand municipalities develop in a way that comports to provincial interests.

One point of controversy is the Provincial desire to encourage high-density development rather than the low density sprawl that is indicative of the exurban fringe of Ontario's urban areas.

A move toward more high density development is certainly essential to control the environmental consequences of growth and to insure more metropolitan efficiency. However, many current municipalities are nervous as to how this might affect their current urban landscape.

For instance, according to the Barrie Advance, Provincial restrictions on growth could limit the amount of land available for new development. This may drive up the cost of land, pricing some out of the market.

The Globe and Mail reports that in Toronto, there is a fear that higher densities will disrupt the historical character of its neighborhoods, while further out on the exurban fringe, yorkregion.com says that environmentalists want more restrictions on growth to sustain important Rouge River watershed. Similarly, farmers contend that the proposed law will do little to save greenspace in the province.

Ontario--like many other provinces and states in North America--is marked by numerous conflicting constituencies. How the province manages their disparate interests and whether it can be successful in mitigating urban sprawl should be closely watched for those people concerned with the issue.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

2004-12-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

TEA 21- Reauthorization Update

2004-12-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

It is not surprising, but last month's lame duck session of the 108th Congress failed to take up the matter of reauthorizing the major transportation funding bill, TEA-21 (now called SAFETEA).

TEA-21 expired in September of 2003 and has been periodically extended. At issue is various discrepancies in funding levels proposed by the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President.

Currently, the law stands in conference committee waiting for a compromise between the House and Senate versions to be hashed out. The House version of the bill (H.R. 3550) calls for $275 billion over six years. The Senate version (S. 1072) calls for spending levels at $318 billion over the same period; and the White House has indicated that he will veto any bill exceeding $256 billion. With the coming of the 109th Congress in January, new bills will have to be submitted to Congress, but reports indicate that there will not be a significant change in these numbers.

The next few months should be interesting as Congress takes up a compromise bill. Even if the House and Senate split the difference, the funding level will undoubtedly be above what the White House is comfortable with. The Bush Administration's penchant for discipline within the Republican ranks could be disrupted over this bill--which is one reason why Congress failed to go ahead with reauthorization during the election season.

For members of Congress, transportation projects are pointed to as important examples of bringing federal funds to their constituencies and, hence, demonstrating their effectiveness as legislators. The President's policy priorities for his next term--Social Security "reform" and further cutting taxes--are going to require either increasing the deficit significantly or cutting spending. Wall Street, European allies, and international investors are becoming increasingly worried about the US deficit spending, making the pressure for bringing federal budgets under control significant.

Where the future of transportation funding will fall within this complex array of competing interests and needs is still unknown. What should not be underestimated, however, is the importance of a viable transportation system for the sustenance of the nation's economy and the quality of life in our metropolitan areas.

The extended reauthorization process has already tied the hands of many localities who are depending on federal matching funds for important redevelopment efforts.

The latest example to run across my desk is from Warren, New Jersey where a mixed-use downtown redevelopment project is being stalled as local officials wait for funds.

Many locales are rethinking the dominant "sprawl" type development that separates offices, residential sectors, and commercial districts through low density planning by encouraging integrative developments. These more pedestrian-friendly spaces, demand less public infrastructure in the form of highways and are more amenable to a variety of transportation choices.

(Linked to Outside the Beltway)

Lame Duck Session

2004-11-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

We've just begun the Lame Duck session of Congress where the very important reauthorization of the TEA-21 Bill may take place.

In characteristic mode, the Congress has waffled on the reauthorization for the better part of the year in an effort to avoid bringing out into the open differences between Bush--who wants to limit funding for the reauthorication--and his comrades in Congress who look to the highway and transit bill as a way to bring home the pork.

As a result of this indecision, projects are on hold throughout the country as states and municipalities wait to see what the figures for federal matching dollars are going to look like.

The reauthorization of TEA-21 got little discussion during the Presidential campaign. Although I did find this brief quote from Bush in early September:

"There will be a highway bill, and just want to make sure that the highway bill honors the Highway Trust Fund. The Highway Trust Fund is set up so that we use the money from the gasoline tax and not general revenues. And I think it's very important that we guard that aspect of the trust, keep the trust of the trust fund. (Applause.) And that's why we're having the discussions we're having, and you know, we'll see if we can get a bill done."

It's certainly reassuring to see that he's put so much time in thinking about this bill. You have to love the applause line: "keep the trust of the trust fund"!

Tea-21 Reauthorization

2004-11-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

Tea-21 is the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. It is the major highway & public transit bill that guides federal funding. This is a massive spending bill that will have immense impact on how metropolitan areas develop transportation projects for the next 6 years or so.

Tea-21 expired in Sept. 2003 and has been living on through periodic extensions over the past 13 months. Both the Senate and House of Representatives passed versions of the reauthorization bill earlier this year; but due to discrepancies between the two bills and President Bush's insistence that it not be too generous, Congress has pretty much avoided dealing with it until after the election.

Well, the election is over and The Pottsdown Mercury reports that Congress will be taking up the bill in the veto session.

This is far from certain since it is an immense pork-barrel bill & many new members may want to get a piece of the federal funding pie.

The outcome of this bill will be significant for cities and suburbs as many infrastructure projects involve acquiring these federal matching funds. Powerful members of Congress can also push through pet projects that can have a significant impact on the metropolitan form.

We will be following Congressional action on this bill in the coming months.

Here is another article showing how Westville, NJ is having to put the breaks on downtown redevelopment because of Congressional inaction.

US Presidential Election

2004-11-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

The recent US Presidential election continued a trend of geographical bi-polarization that developed in earnest during the 2000 election. Most of the focus in the media regarding the geographic divide has been at the state level (i.e. "Red" Republican states in the South and West vs. the Northeast, West Coast and Upper Midwest for the Democrats).

A closer analysis shows that the suburbs are the real site for explaining which way states vote.

In the next few weeks we will provide analysis of several metropolitan areas throughout the US, comparing central cities & their suburbs to explain results in key states.

In the meantime, here is an interesting analysis of suburban voting in Oregon.

Washington Post on Sprawl

2004-08-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey is doing a three part series on sprawl in the DC region.

The first part, "Space for Employers, Not for Homes," (Aug. 8, 2004, p. A1) addresses one of the problems with our fragmented system of governance in the US. Municipalities are interested in raising revenue in ways that do not require too much capital outlay. By encouraging business expansion and limiting residential development, a municipality can count on tax revenue, but doesn't have to worry about expenditures in the form of school funding, sewer expansion, etc...

Since it is to every individual municipality's advantage to act similarly, regionally there becomes a dearth of affordable housing--or, more precisely, a concentration of housing spatially segregated from places of employment requiring vast commute times.

The second story, "Washington's Road to Outward Growth," (Aug. 9, 2004, p. A1) talks about this latter trend in detail.

In conjunction with their series on sprawl, the Post also hosted a "Live Online" session with Gerrit Knapp from the University of Maryland. The session was only of marginal interest as Knapp gave only cursory responses to some of the very good questions. It would have been interesting to hear him expound a bit more.

New Urbanism

2004-07-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is the source for news regarding innovative developments in urban and metropolitan spaces. Enjoy.