The state last week doled out around $1.5 million in grants to help communities with smart-growth and other planning issues. Alas, Framingham didn't make the list (I don't know if the town even applied), but a number of other Boston-area communities did:
* Brookline received $30,000 to create redevelopment plans for three sites in walker-friendly Coolidge Corner.
* Needham also got $30,000 to plan a downtown mixed-use district; Quincy also received $30,000 for a downtown "vision plan" and "design guidelines."
* Somerville received $27,850 to help it prepare a District Improvement Financing application for Union Square.
* The MAPC got $60,000 to assist Hopkinton, Ashland and Southborough in planning for land that Weston Nurseries is selling, including a "community planning process" and suggested zoning changes.
You can see the complete listing of this year's Smart Growth Technical Assistance Grant awards here.
November 8, 2005
November 5, 2005
Another Outdoor ‘Lifestyle Center’: Lehi, Utah
Although you'd never know it from the conventional, pedestrian-hostile expansion now underway at the Natick Mall, outdoor walker-appealing shopping centers are the current trend in retailing, as consumers increasingly seek the experience of strolling somewhere with a sense of place. This is especially true among retailers hoping to cater to more upscale shoppers (such as the Natick Mall will be doing in its half-century-old format of enclosed mall surrounded by a sea of asphalt).
The latest incarnation of that trend is in Lehi Utah, where "developers plan to build a pedestrian friendly mall twice the size of Salt Lake City's Gateway shopping center and bordered by 8,000 houses," KUTV in Salt Lake City reports. "The 150-acre development, dubbed Terrace at Traverse Mountain, will be an 'outdoor lifestyle center' with up to 150 upscale shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, the partners said." Average annual household income within a 15-mile radius of the planned center was about $87,000 last year, KUTV notes.
The latest incarnation of that trend is in Lehi Utah, where "developers plan to build a pedestrian friendly mall twice the size of Salt Lake City's Gateway shopping center and bordered by 8,000 houses," KUTV in Salt Lake City reports. "The 150-acre development, dubbed Terrace at Traverse Mountain, will be an 'outdoor lifestyle center' with up to 150 upscale shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, the partners said." Average annual household income within a 15-mile radius of the planned center was about $87,000 last year, KUTV notes.
November 3, 2005
500 Atlantic Avenue Solution
I'm not sure why there's a brouhaha over the sidewalk in front of the planned new hotel at 500 Atlantic Avenue. Developers want to divert the sidewalk so there's pull-up valet parking, while walking advocates want an unbroken sidewalk as part of the Rose Kennedy greenway. But there's an easy solution - do both.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Hilton in midtown Manhattan does just that, using parallel sidewalks with a drive-up between them. Here's what it looks like:
The shot on the left shows that there's plenty of room for taxis or private cars to pull up and drop off passengers, and there's a sidewalk in front of the door. The shot on the right shows that there's also a continuous sidewalk, interrupted only by the driveway (which isn't as massive as it appears on the photo).
Pedestrian-appealing non-diverted sidewalks CAN co-exist with pull-up valet parking. It just has to be designed properly. It's already been done.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Hilton in midtown Manhattan does just that, using parallel sidewalks with a drive-up between them. Here's what it looks like:
The shot on the left shows that there's plenty of room for taxis or private cars to pull up and drop off passengers, and there's a sidewalk in front of the door. The shot on the right shows that there's also a continuous sidewalk, interrupted only by the driveway (which isn't as massive as it appears on the photo).
Pedestrian-appealing non-diverted sidewalks CAN co-exist with pull-up valet parking. It just has to be designed properly. It's already been done.
November 2, 2005
You’re More Important Than My Car
My parents' neighborhood doesn't have brick sidewalks, faux gas lamps or sidewalk cafes. But their neighborhood in an inner suburb of New York is extremely walkable nonetheless, and that's due to more than the presence of sidewalks, fairly dense development/small lot sizes and actual destinations you can walk to (local stores).
Those all help, of course. But the design of the homes and blocks also goes a long way toward making a walker-friendly streetscape.
Streets are relatively narrow - when cars are parked, traffic has to slow down. The nearby artery road has one lane of traffic each way and a wide buffer between sidewalk and cars.
Homes are fairly close to the street, and windows face invitingly to the sidewalk. Many have front porches where people can (and do) sit to watch the neighbors walk by. You feel like you're walking in a neighborhood, and there could be friendly eyes on the street watching.
And, in design from a bygone era, most garages are not attached to the houses presenting huge car entryways to the street, but are tucked farther away in back of the homes. Even two-car garages in such designs don't negatively impact the ambiance, because often the driveway is one vehicle-width-wide at the sidewalk, and then opens up to be wider behind the house.
It's hard to overstate what this does to improve the appeal of a streetscape to a pedestrian. It all but shouts: Your presence walking by my home is welcome! Your sensory enjoyment is more important to me than where I park my vehicle!
Huge 2- and 3-car garages built up at street levels, with doorways in some cases even closer to the sidewalk than the house itself, usually give quite a different - if unintentional - message: This neighborhood is built for the drive-up convenience of my vehicles, not for you.
Those all help, of course. But the design of the homes and blocks also goes a long way toward making a walker-friendly streetscape.
Streets are relatively narrow - when cars are parked, traffic has to slow down. The nearby artery road has one lane of traffic each way and a wide buffer between sidewalk and cars.
Homes are fairly close to the street, and windows face invitingly to the sidewalk. Many have front porches where people can (and do) sit to watch the neighbors walk by. You feel like you're walking in a neighborhood, and there could be friendly eyes on the street watching.
And, in design from a bygone era, most garages are not attached to the houses presenting huge car entryways to the street, but are tucked farther away in back of the homes. Even two-car garages in such designs don't negatively impact the ambiance, because often the driveway is one vehicle-width-wide at the sidewalk, and then opens up to be wider behind the house.
It's hard to overstate what this does to improve the appeal of a streetscape to a pedestrian. It all but shouts: Your presence walking by my home is welcome! Your sensory enjoyment is more important to me than where I park my vehicle!
Huge 2- and 3-car garages built up at street levels, with doorways in some cases even closer to the sidewalk than the house itself, usually give quite a different - if unintentional - message: This neighborhood is built for the drive-up convenience of my vehicles, not for you.
November 1, 2005
Last Night’s Walkable Neighborhood Test
Are there a lot of kids in your area? Were there a lot of trick-or-treaters at your door last night? That's a great test of how walkable your neighborhood is.
To be fair, it's probably best to average out over a few years - in the same spot, some years there can be a horde of kids and other years not so many. Weather can make a difference; so too can competing events (like a big school Halloween party) or local customs. But if there are kids around and they generally do want to go trick or treating, whether or not they come to your block is a good test of how walkable your neighborhood is.
As the New York Times noted in an article about some blocks in Cold Spring, N.Y. that traditionally attract hundreds of kids throughout the community:
Yet another way that McMansion neighborhoods are affecting traditional neighborhoods - now those living in traditional areas have to buy extra candy for the McMansionites. (That's along with suffering the traffic those neighborhoods dump onto our roads because residents of non-walkable neighborhoods have to drive everywhere. And when there's more residential housing going up without nearby commercial services to support it, or any kind of jobs nearby for residents, that means those people are always driving through other communities to get to work, etc.)
If it doesn't feel comfortable trick or treating, it probably doesn't feel comfortable walking anywhere.
To be fair, it's probably best to average out over a few years - in the same spot, some years there can be a horde of kids and other years not so many. Weather can make a difference; so too can competing events (like a big school Halloween party) or local customs. But if there are kids around and they generally do want to go trick or treating, whether or not they come to your block is a good test of how walkable your neighborhood is.
As the New York Times noted in an article about some blocks in Cold Spring, N.Y. that traditionally attract hundreds of kids throughout the community:
With new housing sprawling across the Hudson Valley, parents and children want a neighborhood where you can actually walk around, rather than hiking from two-acre lot to two-acre lot. No one can claim McMansion neighborhoods were designed for trick-or-treating. And with safety an issue for parents in a way it was not for their own parents, having one street, section of town, condo project or whatever become Halloween Central has a definite comfort-zone appeal.
Yet another way that McMansion neighborhoods are affecting traditional neighborhoods - now those living in traditional areas have to buy extra candy for the McMansionites. (That's along with suffering the traffic those neighborhoods dump onto our roads because residents of non-walkable neighborhoods have to drive everywhere. And when there's more residential housing going up without nearby commercial services to support it, or any kind of jobs nearby for residents, that means those people are always driving through other communities to get to work, etc.)
If it doesn't feel comfortable trick or treating, it probably doesn't feel comfortable walking anywhere.
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