Posts about Development
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Freeways that never were
In the 1950s and 60s, urban planners were busy constructing freeways across America, through plains and mountains where they were needed, and into the centers of cities where they bulldozed vibrant communities and hastened sprawl and urban decay. Keep reading…
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Thin layer of ice found in hell
Smart growth, transit-oriented development - there are many names for the idea of building mixed-use, walkable communities. Whatever you call it, it’s starting to catch on in suburban communities from San Mateo to Silver Spring. But most are areas with existing transit, near to already walkable cities. What about America’s great bastions of… Keep reading…
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Westwood Station
In Westwood, MA is the Route 128 rail station, a stop on Amtrak’s Acela and Regional trains between Boston and the rest of the Northeast Corridor cities to the south. It is also a stop on the MBTA’s commuter rail, and immediately off Massachusetts’ Route 128, (in that area at least) better know to the rest of the country as I-95. Keep reading…
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Economists for sprawl?
A Harvard economist, Edward Glaeser, got some press recently for a report he has written about the connection between land-use rules in Massachusetts towns and housing prices. It’s really not much of a surprise that many towns, like Lincoln and Weston (among the richest towns in the Commonwealth) use land restrictions to keep their towns small and expensive. Keep reading…
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Principled development
This summer, I convened a series of discussions about development, urban planning, and policy in New York City. Out of those discussions I wrote down some thoughts, but ended up putting them in a drawer as people got busy with the campaign, other jobs, and life… but better late than never, here is a draft. The Imperative Today, New York City is entering a new era of… Keep reading…
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When will they ever learn?
The Death and Life of Great American Cities was published in 1961. It’s understandable that back then, urban planners thought single-use zoning was great. Cozy residential neighborhoods, grand shopping districts, polluting industry far away, beautiful soaring towers with verdant parkland in between - who wouldn’t be seducded by that vision, standing… Keep reading…
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The all-purpose suburban mega-home
Robert Samuelson writes about the dangerous trend toward larger and larger homes. “By and large,” he says, “the new American home is a residential SUV. It’s big, gadget-loaded and slightly gaudy.” Encouraged by tax breaks for mortgages, American families are buying larger and larger homes even as the prices soar. Keep reading…
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A picture is worth a thousand activists
Aaron Naparstek discusses a few reasons for the momentum shifting away from Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal: New York losing the 2012 Olympic bid, the Extell competing bid, but most interesting of all, a suggestion that showing a picture of the bizarre looking buildings in the New York times galvanized previously unconcerned citizens into opposition:… Keep reading…
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Get yer community plans here - maybe
Theresa Toro points out the Greenpoint/Williamsburg community plan, whose difficulty of finding I lamented earlier. Keep reading…
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Added value of community
This article joins in the chorus of criticism of the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision, which allowed the City of New London to condemn property for redevelopment even though the public value of that was fairly tenuous. But the article also thinks beyond the simple government power versus private property rights argument, by suggesting that the real issue is one of valuing the… Keep reading…