The Globe's West Weekly edition has a big story today on the influx of Brazilians to Framingham (not particularly news to anyone, except perhaps the scale of the community here.)
But with all the talk again of restaurants and stores that cater to Brazilians (and, visitors to downtown know, quite a nice Brazilian bakery/cafe), I can't help thinking how nuts it is that Framingham doesn't try to take advantage of this more, and turn the Brazilian center into a Chinatown/North End type of draw that brings all kinds of people, not just Brazilians, to downtown.
I've never been to Brazil, but suspect it's more of an outdoor/cafe type of society than a typical American suburb. I can envision mixing the special Brazilian feel of downtown with architecture that invites strolling, sitting/eating outdoors and people watching. There ought to be a Chamber of Commerce type of bilingual map that marks off for people all the different interesting Brazilian shops and eateries. Each of the restaurants and stores ought to have menus and/or flyers in English explaining the special foods and goods they sell; every one of the stores that caters to non-Brazilians ought to have a special sign in the window inviting non-Portuguese-speakers in, too.
It would be a great way to attract suburbanites both near and far who are tired of the strip-mall experience.
If we apply some vision to what we already have going downtown, we could create something really special here.
April 14, 2005
April 13, 2005
So What Does A Pedestrian-Friendly Downtown Street Look Like?
The Western News publishes one architect's sketch of what a pedestrian-encouraging streetscape might look like in Libby, Montana.
Take a look. You'll see not simply the presence of a sidewalk, but a sidewalk with a pedestrian-friendly building fronting it -- up at the streetscape, not set back behind a parking lot, with on-street seating, as well as greenery.
Put a strip mall there, front the sidewalk with an asphalt parking lot instead of the building and outdoor seating, and it becomes a pedestrian-hostile environment. Like most of Framingham.
Folks, it's not just about attracting the "right" kinds of businesses to a downtown. If the buildings, sidewalks and streetscape are not designed to encourage the kind of street activity we want, then we'll either get kinds of street activities we DON'T want, or no downtown activity at all.
Take a look. You'll see not simply the presence of a sidewalk, but a sidewalk with a pedestrian-friendly building fronting it -- up at the streetscape, not set back behind a parking lot, with on-street seating, as well as greenery.
Put a strip mall there, front the sidewalk with an asphalt parking lot instead of the building and outdoor seating, and it becomes a pedestrian-hostile environment. Like most of Framingham.
Folks, it's not just about attracting the "right" kinds of businesses to a downtown. If the buildings, sidewalks and streetscape are not designed to encourage the kind of street activity we want, then we'll either get kinds of street activities we DON'T want, or no downtown activity at all.
If Your Kid Is Fat, Blame Your Car
So says Mark Fenton, host of the PBS show America's Walking.
"We've built such an autocentric world, it's possible to expend no calories while going about the routines of daily life," Fenton told a Lawrence audience, according to the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World.
Parents drive their kids everywhere, because kids live in communities where it's impossible for them to transport themselves anywhere meaningful.
I could walk to school, and walk to some of my friends' houses. My mom regularly sent my sister and I to the store to pick up milk, bread and sandwich meat. And I wasn't living in a city, but an inner-ring suburb of New York, in a neighborhood of all single-family houses.
But there were sidewalks there, and buildings up at the street, and streets that were easily crossable on foot, and things like stores and schools not only close by, but that you could walk to. They weren't surrounded by so much asphalt, and so much pedestrian-hostile multi-lane entries/exits that it was uncomfortable to walk there. Yet people drove places too; there was adequate parking for all. The key was that places were designed for sharing the infrastructure; not designed solely for cars to the point of being pedestrian-implausible.
"We've built such an autocentric world, it's possible to expend no calories while going about the routines of daily life," Fenton told a Lawrence audience, according to the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World.
Parents drive their kids everywhere, because kids live in communities where it's impossible for them to transport themselves anywhere meaningful.
I could walk to school, and walk to some of my friends' houses. My mom regularly sent my sister and I to the store to pick up milk, bread and sandwich meat. And I wasn't living in a city, but an inner-ring suburb of New York, in a neighborhood of all single-family houses.
But there were sidewalks there, and buildings up at the street, and streets that were easily crossable on foot, and things like stores and schools not only close by, but that you could walk to. They weren't surrounded by so much asphalt, and so much pedestrian-hostile multi-lane entries/exits that it was uncomfortable to walk there. Yet people drove places too; there was adequate parking for all. The key was that places were designed for sharing the infrastructure; not designed solely for cars to the point of being pedestrian-implausible.
April 11, 2005
It’s the Sprawl, Y’all
That's the intriguing headline on a Sojourners magazine piece with the subheading: Why suburbs-on-steroids are wearing out their welcome.
While the article focuses first on the new Hunters Brooke subdivision in Charles County, where some disgruntled nearby residents expressed their disgust by burning down some houses being built, the piece also takes a look at the anger being sparked by "design that pays little or no attention to its surroundings. While it chews up meadows, deserts, and soybean fields, sprawl either drives out the animals (people included) already living there or drastically alters their lives."
And this is no longer an issue solely for liberal environmentalists. "Nearly two years ago columnist Mark Paul of the Sacramento Bee described how polls in some Republican-leaning California cities placed better management of growth and development as one of the top concerns of citizens, 'right up there with police protection and keeping taxes affordable,' " the article notes. "There’s scant evidence that what’s awful for a wetland is somehow good for anyone or anything else, unless you limit your measure of 'good' and 'bad' to the financial profit or loss for a few."
Sprawl causes more than traffic snarls and erasure of open space. "Other effects, less obvious, are detrimental to the economic health of local businesses and communities: increased taxes in outlying areas to pay for new services and infrastructure; tax hikes on city residents to compensate for a declining tax base; dying downtown businesses as suburban malls and big-box stores draw customers away; and the concentration of poverty in urban centers and close-in older suburbs." Studies also show that residents of non-walkable communities tend to have higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and other health problems.
While the article focuses first on the new Hunters Brooke subdivision in Charles County, where some disgruntled nearby residents expressed their disgust by burning down some houses being built, the piece also takes a look at the anger being sparked by "design that pays little or no attention to its surroundings. While it chews up meadows, deserts, and soybean fields, sprawl either drives out the animals (people included) already living there or drastically alters their lives."
And this is no longer an issue solely for liberal environmentalists. "Nearly two years ago columnist Mark Paul of the Sacramento Bee described how polls in some Republican-leaning California cities placed better management of growth and development as one of the top concerns of citizens, 'right up there with police protection and keeping taxes affordable,' " the article notes. "There’s scant evidence that what’s awful for a wetland is somehow good for anyone or anything else, unless you limit your measure of 'good' and 'bad' to the financial profit or loss for a few."
Sprawl causes more than traffic snarls and erasure of open space. "Other effects, less obvious, are detrimental to the economic health of local businesses and communities: increased taxes in outlying areas to pay for new services and infrastructure; tax hikes on city residents to compensate for a declining tax base; dying downtown businesses as suburban malls and big-box stores draw customers away; and the concentration of poverty in urban centers and close-in older suburbs." Studies also show that residents of non-walkable communities tend to have higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and other health problems.
April 2, 2005
Town/Gown Cooperation: Univ of Pennsylvania and West Philly
"A decade-long commitment to upgrade the distressed urban neighborhood surrounding the University of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia has yielded big bonuses in private investment, affordable housing, reduced crime, and enhanced public educational opportunities, its former president told attendees at the APA National Planning Conference in San Francisco," according to the American Planning Association.
Judith Rodin, Penn's president from 1994 to 2004 and now president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, was the opening keynote speaker at the conference last month.
The university invested in the neighborhood by providing money for better services, street lights and sanitation; by working with private developers to build new housing; by buying and renovating neighborhood eyesores; by bringing new retail to the area; and more. The university also decided it had to end the "fortress-like" separation of campus from surrounding community. "The university decided that it needed to 'reduce the physical isolation' of the campus with the neighborhood, so that the borders of the campus became a 'public seam' rather than a 'barrier.' "
As a public college, Framingham State doesn't have the kind of endowment money that a school like Penn does. Still, it sure would be nice if college planners would think about how to integrate with the surrounding community and improve the pedestrian streetscape around its campus.
Judith Rodin, Penn's president from 1994 to 2004 and now president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, was the opening keynote speaker at the conference last month.
The university invested in the neighborhood by providing money for better services, street lights and sanitation; by working with private developers to build new housing; by buying and renovating neighborhood eyesores; by bringing new retail to the area; and more. The university also decided it had to end the "fortress-like" separation of campus from surrounding community. "The university decided that it needed to 'reduce the physical isolation' of the campus with the neighborhood, so that the borders of the campus became a 'public seam' rather than a 'barrier.' "
As a public college, Framingham State doesn't have the kind of endowment money that a school like Penn does. Still, it sure would be nice if college planners would think about how to integrate with the surrounding community and improve the pedestrian streetscape around its campus.
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