Natick Smart Growth Meeting Thursday

Is "Smart Growth" in Natick Smart?

That's the title of a two-day community "charrette" that kicks off tomorrow, Thursday Sept. 9, 6 to 10 p.m. at the Morse Library. It's cosponsored by Natick Center Associates and the Community Development Office of The Town of Natick.

On this first night, attendees will examine the 10 major principles of smart growth and discuss how they might apply to Natick Center. The second night, Sept. 23, will be focused on specific areas of the downtown center.

‘Smart Growth’ Projects Big Minn. Sellers

From Finance & Commerce in Minneapolis:

"Many of the hottest housing projects in the market are dense, multi-family condominium projects in the core cities. Many new home buyers are eschewing long commutes and high-maintenance houses for condos close to downtown. Proximity to public transit (including the new light-rail transit line) is often touted as a benefit of many housing projects.

"Mixed-use projects combining residential and retail elements are becoming increasingly popular. "

The Cost of Driving

I'm always astounded when conservatives complain about "public subsidies" for mass transportation, because it's so inconsistent -- none of them seem to mind our massive tax subsidies for road construction and maintenance. (Well OK, even some mass-transit haters balked at the multi-billion-dollar Big Dig pricetag. But that doesn't seem to sour them on the general concept of public funding for private automobile travel.)

I'm not even talking about the endless billions we pay in defense money to keep a presence in oil-rich Middle Eastern nations, or the medical costs we all end up paying because of air pollution-related diseases (not to mention the health costs of living a lifestyle where nobody walks anywhere anymore). I'm talking about our tax money going directly for road construction, repair and maintenance.

Barnard College Professor Owen D. Gutfreund notes in a New York Times op-ed piece today:

There is a mistaken notion that American drivers pay for their roads through gas taxes. Actually, even though states collect gas taxes and a modest federal levy was imposed to pay part of the Interstate expenses, the total of these charges never amounted to more than one-third of highway costs. Such taxes, adjusted for inflation, have actually decreased, and efforts to increase them are politically risky, even though each 1-cent rise in the gas tax costs the average driver less than $8 a year. In practice, our roads and highways have been underwritten by general taxation. With gas taxes and tolls capped by effective lobbying, this annual subsidy has grown, amounting to billions of dollars annually.

With driving so generously subsidized and the true costs hidden, Americans have driven more and more miles each year.

It sometimes appears to cost less to drive your car than take the train, but that's because you're not paying anything close to the real costs of that automobile trip.

Walking Route 30

It was a beautiful day today, so I went for a stroll along Rte. 30 near the proposed new Lowe's on my lunch hour. Despite the fabulous weather and proximity of numerous offices (and office workers), the sidewalks were devoid of pedestrians. In half an hour, I saw two recreational walkers and one woman walking to the post office from somewhere nearby. Period. Of course, the area was teeming with people -- all of them in cars.

Why? Because despite the presence of sidewalks, almost everything about this area is ACTIVELY HOSTILE to pedestrians.

* There is no pedestrian-friendly paths from the sidewalk to any of the strip-mall destinations along the road. None! There is no walkway from the sidewalks to the Target mall, or even to the post office! You have to leave the sidewalk, and walk into the same paved way that cars are turning into, crossing a traffic-filled asphalt parking lot, to actually get anywhere.

In the case of the restaurant-filled mall across from the post office (Big Fresh Cafe, Boston Market, etc.), there is an active guard rail barrier preventing anyone from walking through from the street -- the only way in is by using the place where all the cars are streaming into the parking lot.

In fact, the ONLY place in that immediate area with a pedestrian alternative from the sidewalk to the business is the McDonald's. Sad commentary, Framingham.

* There is no buffer or screening of any kind between sidewalk and rushing traffic. This tends to make walking an unpleasant experience overall, scaring off all but the hardiest, most dedicated walkers.

Oh, and if you want to walk from, say, Stop & Shop or BJs on Old Connecticut Path through to Rte. 30? This is Framingham's idea of providing pedestrian access. Yes, some painted lines in the roadway saying "pedestrian walkway."

Planning Board Ponders Rte. 30 Lowe’s

The developers of the proposed new Lowe's store in Framingham (where the Verizon building now sits) claim that most of the traffic to their new store would be existing cars, not new trips, according to the MetroWest Daily News.

As a former member of Town Meeting's Standing Committee on Planning & Zoning, my analytical response to that woud be:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Are they kidding?

All you local Home Depot shoppers: How many of you stop in there while you're out and about shopping anyway, as opposed to going out there because you need something?

More importantly, even if that is true, the fact that the current design would make it unappealing and nearly impossible to walk there from anywhere else would add tons of turns in and out of the store, with an adverse affect on traffic. Let's listen to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee member who urged a multi-use path be built between that proposed store and Shoppers World, so people could park once and walk around to different area retail centers.

Note: I had an opinion piece in the News about this project recently.