Posts tagged Sprawl
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Lunch links: Bad land use decision edition
Like lawn gnomes in the nation’s front yard: The Examiner looks at “mall sprawl”, the constant pressure from interest groups (and caving by Congress) to put more and more memorials on the Mall despite a 2003 law that said they wouldn’t do it. Newer ones aren’t just a simple statue or wall, either: they come with visitors’ centers, that explain… Keep reading…
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MoCo “transit-oriented” zoning would encourage non-transit-oriented sprawl
The Montgomery County Planning Board reviewed proposed zoning rules yesterday that would create transit-oriented mixed-use (“TMX”) zones. It’s a good idea, but as written, it will also encourage building low-density, auto-oriented development in areas far from transit. Keep reading…
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Best places to live… if gas were still $1.50
Money has one of those silly rankings of the best places to live in America. Columbia, Maryland is #8; Hunter Mill, Sully, and Burke, Virginia #19, 25, and 31 respectively; Gaithersburg #29, Reston #37, and Rockville #66. Keep reading…
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Fairfax fills open space between strip malls with another strip mall
Fairfax Boulevard, in the City of Fairfax, is almost wall-to-wall strip malls. Many of them aren’t doing well, though; there are numerous vacant or closed stores. What to do? In Fairfax, the answer is: build another strip mall! Keep reading…
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VA-11 candidates on traffic, transit, and density
Tomorrow, Democrats in most of Fairfax and northern Prince William County will vote for a nominee to run for the Congressional seat in Virgina’s 11th district, currently held by Tom Davis. Since Northern Virginia has been trending Democratic and the Republicans lack a top-tier candidate, there’s a good chance the Democratic nominee will win in the general. Keep reading…
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Google announces “mixed-use” campus, may be just more sprawl
Google is headquartered in an artistically funky but still fairly ordinary office complex in Mountain View, California. Like every other office park for miles around, there are a few fairly low-rise office buildings surrounded with parking and atop more parking. There’s nothing but swamp, an amphitheatre (surrounded by lots of parking) and more office buildings for miles… Keep reading…
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Oops, we forgot the transit
Who didn’t see this coming? After building a convention center out in a pretty empty area served by lots of highway lanes and almost no transit, the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor is discovering that being far from everything with poor transit service is a problem. Ryan Avent has more. Keep reading…
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Be like Berlin
Paul Krugman tackles Americans’ unsustainable auto-dependent suburbs, arguing that the way out of this gas price crisis is to learn from the Germans: Keep reading…
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The more things change
The New York Times ran an op-ed on Sunday about politicians running for President coming up with proposals to ease the pain of high gas prices. Only this op-ed was from the summer of 1996, when average nationwide prices were rising from about $1.07 a gallon to $1.23 per gallon. The author, Russell Baker, wrote: Keep reading…
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Suburbanites enjoy amenities but have no time for them
The Post asked readers to write about what they loved about their homes, and Marc Fisher has a summary. Everyone, city and suburb, enjoyed public spaces and contact with neighbors. Only the manner of that contact varied from county to county, with more neighborhood restaurants and churches in Prince George’s, more intercultural interaction in Montgomery. Keep reading…