The fountain that never worked, at the public space that never worked, has been paved over at Boston's City Hall Plaza, but I don't share city officials' enthusiasm that the concrete has improved the plaza's appeal at all. You can see some before and after photos at Boston.com. I took an "after" photo this afternoon, and it's not impressive.
What's especially noteworthy is that nearby spaces like Quincy Market and Boston Common were teeming with people, while the plaza felt barren and sparsely populated. The fun "cows on parade" attracted swarms of people in the area around Faneuil Hall, while the cows at the plaza drew much less attention (hopefully they get their eyeballs during the workweek when commuters walk by). Photos on the next page...
June 11, 2006
June 7, 2006
‘MetroFuture’ Greater Boston Planning Workshop June 27
The MetroFuture project is holding a workshop at the Sheraton Tara in Framingham Tuesday, June 27, from 5 to 9 pm (as well as Wednesday, June 28 at Northeastern University in Boston) to discuss alternative growth strategies for the region.
From their Web site:
From their Web site:
June 4, 2006
Battleground Cul de Sac
Are cul-de-sacs a suburban utopia or the cause of many traffic woes? The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) looked at the issue earlier this week with a piece that notes "In Charlotte, where the suburbs have emerged as a leading cul-de-sac battleground, a recent study by transportation planners found that almost all of the city's heavily congested intersections were located near residential developments from the 1960s, '70s and '80s, which are filled with cul-de-sac neighborhoods. The biggest traffic problems aren't in the old central cities these days, says Orlando, Fla.-based traffic engineer Walter Kulash, 'but rather in the suburban periphery. ' "
In fact, it makes complete sense that if you add population density without adding road networks to help handle that traffic density, you're going to worsen traffic tieups. Because residents of cul-de-sacs add traffic to everyone else's roadways while not making up for it by helping to take anyone else's through traffic. As I mentioned in a post last year, "People who live on cul-de-sacs may like them, but they hardly improve things for everyone else in a community. In fact, they end up adding more traffic to neighboring roads while not offloading any of the burden."
I'm not alone. "Because most of the roads in a neighborhood of cul-de-sacs are dead ends, some traffic experts say the only way to navigate around the neighborhood is to take peripheral roads that are already cluttered with traffic," the Journal says. "And because most cul-de-sacs aren't connected by sidewalks, the only way for people who live there to run errands is to get in their cars and join the traffic."
Thanks to William Hanson, chair of the Framingham Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee, for the citation.
The Journal also counters that the "free market" shows support for cul-de-sacs, because homebuyers are often willing to pay a premium to live on them. But this gets to the heart of my problem with claims about the "free market" -- if individuals just pay for the benefits of something, while shunting the costs of their choice onto society as a whole instead of bearing the full costs themselves, of course a choice is going to look attractive. But that's because the market is being skewed. If cul-de-sac residents paid the true costs of their choice, by having to pay additional property taxes, say, in return for dumping more traffic onto everyone else's roads while not helping to ease everyone else's burdens, you might see truer cost/benefit "free market" actions.
Take one of my biggest "free market" pet peeves, the private automobile driver, who by driving more still no longer comes close to paying more of the full cost of road construction and repair (let alone issues like driving up the cost of heating oil for everyone else, causing pollution that everyone has to pay for, and so on). "The money from gasoline taxes no longer comes close to meeting needs," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels admitted in the New York Times last month. "Nationally, the gap between road-building needs and projected tax revenue is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and growing. Almost every governor I talk to faces a seemingly intractable shortfall."
Hmmmm. Sounds like someone's subsidizing automobile traffic in this country, doesn't it? When everyone collectively has to pay a share of your driving costs whether you drive 3 miles to work each day or 30, can we really say that the "free market" is choosing private autos over public transportation? Of course not. Yet that's the claim by people who oppose "subsidizing" decent rail and other public transit in this country while refusing to acknowledge how much all taxpayers subsidize our individual automobile driving as well. If the choice is that we'd rather more heavily subsidize the private car than public transit, that's one thing. But to claim that consumers in the "free market" are opting for automobiles instead of subsidies for public transit is disingenuous to say the least, if you don't mention how much we're already subsidizing private vehicles.
In fact, it makes complete sense that if you add population density without adding road networks to help handle that traffic density, you're going to worsen traffic tieups. Because residents of cul-de-sacs add traffic to everyone else's roadways while not making up for it by helping to take anyone else's through traffic. As I mentioned in a post last year, "People who live on cul-de-sacs may like them, but they hardly improve things for everyone else in a community. In fact, they end up adding more traffic to neighboring roads while not offloading any of the burden."
I'm not alone. "Because most of the roads in a neighborhood of cul-de-sacs are dead ends, some traffic experts say the only way to navigate around the neighborhood is to take peripheral roads that are already cluttered with traffic," the Journal says. "And because most cul-de-sacs aren't connected by sidewalks, the only way for people who live there to run errands is to get in their cars and join the traffic."
Thanks to William Hanson, chair of the Framingham Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee, for the citation.
The Journal also counters that the "free market" shows support for cul-de-sacs, because homebuyers are often willing to pay a premium to live on them. But this gets to the heart of my problem with claims about the "free market" -- if individuals just pay for the benefits of something, while shunting the costs of their choice onto society as a whole instead of bearing the full costs themselves, of course a choice is going to look attractive. But that's because the market is being skewed. If cul-de-sac residents paid the true costs of their choice, by having to pay additional property taxes, say, in return for dumping more traffic onto everyone else's roads while not helping to ease everyone else's burdens, you might see truer cost/benefit "free market" actions.
Take one of my biggest "free market" pet peeves, the private automobile driver, who by driving more still no longer comes close to paying more of the full cost of road construction and repair (let alone issues like driving up the cost of heating oil for everyone else, causing pollution that everyone has to pay for, and so on). "The money from gasoline taxes no longer comes close to meeting needs," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels admitted in the New York Times last month. "Nationally, the gap between road-building needs and projected tax revenue is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and growing. Almost every governor I talk to faces a seemingly intractable shortfall."
Hmmmm. Sounds like someone's subsidizing automobile traffic in this country, doesn't it? When everyone collectively has to pay a share of your driving costs whether you drive 3 miles to work each day or 30, can we really say that the "free market" is choosing private autos over public transportation? Of course not. Yet that's the claim by people who oppose "subsidizing" decent rail and other public transit in this country while refusing to acknowledge how much all taxpayers subsidize our individual automobile driving as well. If the choice is that we'd rather more heavily subsidize the private car than public transit, that's one thing. But to claim that consumers in the "free market" are opting for automobiles instead of subsidies for public transit is disingenuous to say the least, if you don't mention how much we're already subsidizing private vehicles.
June 3, 2006
Tampa Seeks Walkability, Sense of Place in Medeira Way District
Plans to revitalize Tampa Bay's Medeira Way pay careful attention to pedestrian-friendly ambiance. "Streetscaping, which involves parking, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping and medians as well as traffic flow, is the first phase in a comprehensive redevelopment plan for the city’s downtown retail and commercial district," according to the Beach Beacon.
All three proposals presented at a public meeting include "reducing traffic flow along the thoroughfare from four lanes to two. Sidewalk space is increased, creating a pedestrian environment that could accommodate amenities such as sidewalk cafes, plantings, benches and gathering places, said HTBN urban design principal Craig Watson."
The idea is to offer a sense of place where shoppers want to stroll and linger.
Residents and business owners attending a presentation "appeared to be favorably impressed" with the concepts, the newspaper said.
All three proposals presented at a public meeting include "reducing traffic flow along the thoroughfare from four lanes to two. Sidewalk space is increased, creating a pedestrian environment that could accommodate amenities such as sidewalk cafes, plantings, benches and gathering places, said HTBN urban design principal Craig Watson."
The idea is to offer a sense of place where shoppers want to stroll and linger.
Residents and business owners attending a presentation "appeared to be favorably impressed" with the concepts, the newspaper said.
June 2, 2006
Atlanta Developer Plans Major Open-Air Shopping Center
Cousins Properties, "responsible for some of the Atlanta skyline's most visible buildings," is currently building a 394,000-square-foot retail/restaurant/office project along both sides of a major roadway in Gwinnett, Georgia, the Gwinnett Business Journal reports.
"Joel Murphy, president of Cousin Properties' retail division hopes that the open air, pedestrian-friendly shopping venue will re-define shopping in Gwinnett," the paper notes. " 'There's nothing like it in the area,' Murphy says." The first phase is slated to open this summer.
The project is part of a trend away from conventional enclosed malls of the past, in favor of "lifestyle centers" that seek to create an appealing sense of place and not simply a could-be-anywhere-USA collection of stores. Upscale demographics were a likely a prime attraction in siting the center, since average household income is more than $90,000 in a 3-mile radius around the new center. You can see a site plan for The Avenue Webb Gin here (PDF).
"Joel Murphy, president of Cousin Properties' retail division hopes that the open air, pedestrian-friendly shopping venue will re-define shopping in Gwinnett," the paper notes. " 'There's nothing like it in the area,' Murphy says." The first phase is slated to open this summer.
The project is part of a trend away from conventional enclosed malls of the past, in favor of "lifestyle centers" that seek to create an appealing sense of place and not simply a could-be-anywhere-USA collection of stores. Upscale demographics were a likely a prime attraction in siting the center, since average household income is more than $90,000 in a 3-mile radius around the new center. You can see a site plan for The Avenue Webb Gin here (PDF).
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