Posts about Development
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Right on, Harriet Tregoning!
When I moved to DC, many people asked how I could possibly like DC as much as New York. Certainly DC has a few flaws (we need more transit, for example). But DC is terrific in many ways, and on Smart Growth, the DC government is light years more progressive. Just look at this comment by Harriet Tregoning, DC’s head of planning, last night at the Dupont Circle Citizens Association:We… Keep reading…
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EveryBlock and more for DC
EveryBlock is a new site that lets you see everything going on in your block: pictures people upload, inspection violations in local restaurants, building permits, and more. Here’s my old block in NYC. It looks like it could be a very useful tool for citizens to keep up with what’s going on in their neighborhoods. Rob Halligan is pushing to bring it to DC—that would… Keep reading…
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Ed Glaeser: level the playing field
In a Boston Globe op-ed, Harvard economist Ed Glaeser is the latest to make the argument that our economic policies let suburbs pay less than their fair share while cities pay more. Via Ryan Avent. Keep reading…
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Metro adopts “common sense writ large”
WMATA will now encourage transit-oriented development on its land around Metro stations, instead of just selling it for the money and ignoring land use. By encouraging mixed-use development, it will create more future riders, which is better for Metro and the region. Via Matthew Yglesias (and welcome, Yglesias readers!)… Keep reading…
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14th and U project moving forward
Yesterday, the HPRB approved the general form of the proposed project on the southwest corner of 14th and U. Almost everyone who testified, as well as the HPRB staff and board members, were pleased with the improvements that architect Eric Colbert made to the project since the initial sketches. The rear of the building, away from 14th Street, is 7 stories on the southern end and… Keep reading…
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Consensus and controversy in Rockville’s Pike
Last night I attended a community meeting in Rockville about “envisioning a great place” for Rockville Pike, specifically the segment from Twinbrook Parkway to Richard Montgomery Drive (just north of Wootton Parkway). This section is almost entirely filled with strip malls behind large parking lots—the cookie-cutter suburban retail that makes Rockville’s… Keep reading…
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Tysons stepping away from the edge
Tysons Corner is the classic Edge City, and perhaps the original inspiration for the term. They’re the cities created entirely around the automobile, the mall, and the suburban office park style of architecture—what Christopher Leinberger calls the “Futurama vision” of the shiny new America that looked so exciting in the 1950s. Now that we’ve… Keep reading…
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Density police not required
Urban, walkable, mixed-use areas are the future of America. They’re more environmentally friendly, better for healthy people and strong communities, shorter commutes make people happier, and the market wants more of it. Keep reading…
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Juno’s neighborhood is the better one
In the (excellent) film Juno, the title character’s lower middle class family lives in an old neighborhood with small houses, while the rich potential adoptive parents (the Lorings) live in a shiny new suburb with huge houses on big lots. But as it turns out, Juno’s neighborhood is more expensive than the Lorings’! Yup, the areas of Vancouver where Juno’s… Keep reading…
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NIMBYism strong on Upper Wisconsin
Calling it “giving up on Smart Growth,” Marc Fisher laments the death of a development proposal at the Tenleytown Metro, which would have replaced a small neighborhood library with higher density mixed-use and moved the library a few blocks away. The first time I went to Tenleytown, visiting friends who live there, we had to walk about 15 minutes to Connecticut Avenue… Keep reading…