News & Notes

Photo (cc) Mark Strozier

Project for Public Spaces: Mistakes by the Lake, River, or Sea

In cities around the world, waterfronts are showing new signs of life. Parcels once dominated by industry or highways are now opening up to redevelopment, offering enormous opportunities to create new public spaces and rejuvenate old ones. Too often, however, decision makers hungry for solutions latch on to uninspired design and development plans that constrict public use.

The Boston Globe: Worcester’s revival proving elusive

Ten years ago, Worcester’s downtown was going to hum. A consortium of city officials and investors pledged to turn 21 acres of blight into offices, stores, entertainment sites, and luxury residences. The $565 million project — to be privately and publicly funded — was named CitySquare.

Today, CitySquare is still a far-off promise, an unrealized revitalization effort that is all too common in the region’s old mill and manufacturing cities.

Yahoo! Finance: ‘End of suburbia’ may nearly be upon us: Sam Zell

Young people shunning the suburbs in favor of the hustle and bustle of city life are leading the charge in the “reurbanization of America,” real estate mogul Sam Zell told CNBC on Tuesday.

“You’re drawing all the young people in America to these 24/7 cities. The last thing they want to do is live in the suburbs,” Zell said in a ” Squawk Box ” interview. “In that respect, you’re increasing demand for housing in the urban markets.”

Strong Towns: What About The Elderly?

Traversing an environment built for the automobile in anything other than an automobile, sucks. Even if you can overcome the inhospitable nature of that, there are others that can not. That person may be your grandmother.

When I started blog posting, one of the first topics I posted about were the many side-effects of automobile dependency. Today, I’m going to focus specifically on social isolation.

Streetsblog: Parking Break: What Cities Gain When They Lose Parking Quotas

The final step — here’s the reveal — is so simple it’s anti-climactic. (Sorry.) Once they’ve metered the curb and bought off neighborhoods, cities can just ditch parking quotas: scratch them out and turn the page.

There’s never been a good policy reason for minimum parking requirements. Their political rationale — preventing spillover parking — disappears when street parking is no longer free. Then, developers can figure out for themselves how much car storage to provide, just as they decide how many dishwashers, light fixtures, and bay windows to install. The market, a spot market, emerges.

See also: The Atlantic Cities: Why Drivers Should Pay to Park on Residential Streets