Land Use
Greater Greater Washington writes about where we live, work, and play, why we make the location choices we do, and what forces shape these places.
Many people would like to live in safe, diverse, walkable neighborhoods with access to transit, stores, parks, good schools, and other amenities. While our region has more walkable urban places than most, the demand still exceeds available housing, making these places more expensive (and prices keep rising rapidly).
We must ensure that there are enough housing choices so everyone who wants to live in such a neighborhood can choose to do so. We should ensure that housing in desirable areas is available to people at many points along the income spectrum, and take action to fight segregation. And we can improve the vitality of all neighborhoods by encouraging new retail and amenities to improve the quality of life for all residents.
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Building real community in Allston
Drawing a pretty architectural diagram with lots of pictures of people is easy. Creating a real vibrant community where people want to go is harder. Harvard has noble intentions and many very good ideas for the new science campus (PDF) it is planning in Allston. I’ve praised it in the past. Keep reading…
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“Improvement”
Before: Keep reading…
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Three Bay Area transit plans
As the car-dependent San Francisco Bay Area continues to gradually make itself more transit-friendly, the idea of building less car-dependent housing, even in less central areas, continues to attract at least some adherents. Here are three plans in varying stages of realism. Keep reading…
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The comments keep rolling in
My post on Westwood Station is now number two on a Google search for “Westwood Station”, above even the project’s own home page. And it continues to be the most commented post, with comments coming in on a regular basis - eleven months after the original post! Keep reading…
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T is for Transit-Oriented or Towers in the Park?
From Le Corbusier to today, architects of the automobile era designed buildings that look good from an automobile vantage point: serene and beautiful at high distance or while passing at high speed, but become imposing and dehumanizingly out-of-scale at human distance. Large windswept grassy areas or concrete plazas provide pleasing visual separation at car scale but… Keep reading…
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New York public spaces good and bad
Speaking of public space, the Project for Public Spaces has put together a detailed commentary on New York’s public space - the good spaces, the terrible ones, and the opportunities for the future. Keep reading…
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Westwood controversy swirls on Alpie.net
I get email notifications of new comments on this blog, and every so often there’s a comment on some really old post. The post that’s generated this most often is January’s discussion of Westwood Station, a mixed-use development proposal next to the Route 128 MBTA and Amtrak station in Westwood, MA (about 30 minutes south of Boston). Keep reading…
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Scott Stringer supports moving MSG
Following up to my post on moving Madison Square Garden and restoring a grand Penn Station, Borough President Scott Stringer has announced his support for the idea, and advocates for ensuring public participation in the planning process. Keep reading…
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“Suburban sensibility”
A Times article about Newport, the dense mixed-used development on the Hudson waterfront in Jersey City, talks about how the LeFrak family turned this wasteland of abandoned railyards into a thriving neighborhood. It’s a real success story and a great - and uncommon - example of how open developable spaces can be turned into something better than two-story generic… Keep reading…
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Save Our Superblock
One of the travesties of 1950s-era urban planning was the “superblock”, where cities disrupted the regular street grid to build large towers surrounded by windswept plazas. Most of these superblocks are now recognized as mistakes, such as Boston’s City Hall Plaza, a huge barren space nearly empty all year round, and the World Trade Center superblock,… Keep reading…