What we can learn from Block Island, R.I.

No, most communities can't turn themselves into summer oceanside resorts! ... and for many, it's way too late to save a third of their land as preserved open space (or to prevent Anyplace, U.S.A. homogenization of chain stores and strip malls). However, we can still learn some valuable lessons about streetscape and planning from Block Island, one of the relatively few non-urban U.S. communities that assume many visitors don't have cars.

 

Most in-season ferries to the island don't carry cars -- in fact, only one service, from Point Judith, carries vehicles, and even from there there's also a passenger-only option. A lot of visitors walk, bicycle, or rent mopeds as well as take taxis or rent cars. Streets around much of the island assume multiple use, and it's common to see walkers and cyclers outnumber autos. Planning and design reflect that.

 

In the main commercial district of Old Harbor, the streetscape is particular appealing for pedestrians. There are plenty of "eyes on the street" -- not only shop and hotel windows looking out at the street, but also Victorian-era verandas where people sit outside and watch the harbor and main street activities. The main street itself is narrow in most places, only one lane in each direction, making it non-intimidating to cross on foot, and creating a comfortable feeling of enclosure. It's a marked contrast to an environment like Route 9 in Framingham, where the multiple lanes of traffic and set-back strip malls are just two of many factors making for an unpleasant and uncomfortable walking environment.

 

But another thing worth paying attention to is the architecture of the buildings themselves, offering a form of "surprise and delight" by varying building facade geometry. In other words, the street isn't all one flat, boring row of windows and doors. Some windows jut out. Some doorways are set back. Some buildings are at street level while others are not, instead giving a Newbury Street type of split entryways either a few steps up or a few steps down.

 

I posted several more streetscape photos from Block Island on SmugMug. Note that I took most of them early in the morning, before most of the stores and restaurants were open, because that was the only way I could get good shots of the buildings, sidewalks and streets without a ton of walkers and cyclists getting in the way! Throughout most of the business day and evening, the streets were filled with people walking and biking.

 

I'm trying to find a copy of zoning regulations for Block Island. I'm curious how they've managed to keep out pretty much all chain stores -- one local place boasts they brew Starbuck's coffee and another sells Ben & Jerry's ice cream, but that's pretty much it.

 

Anyway, I'd invite you to look at the rest of the streetscape photos -- it's just one page of thumbnails (click any small image to see a larger version, and click that larger version on the right to see an even bigger one), or you can click the slideshow button at the top right. (And if you're interested in what the rest of the island looks like, I have another collection of 6 pages of thumbnails with pictures around the island).

The importance of surprise and delight

Every time I go back to Moody Street in Waltham, I'm so impressed with how the neighborhood has been revitalized. Filled with interesting restaurants and shops, it's also filled with people walking from place to place, along a streetscape that's appealing in part because it offers little surprises and delights.

Between Moody Street and the cinema, a friend and I encountered a surprising little window display that didn't seem to have any purpose except to entertain. Around the corner, there was Boston University's Center for Digital Imaging Arts had an exhibit of graduating students' projects -- you could just walk in, close to 9 pm, like a gallery, and look at some of the works.

A true "park once, walk to many destinations" environment, my friend and I met with no plans except to walk around and find someplace we wanted to have dinner. There are so many choices, all enticingly accessible on foot. It was a nice summer evening, and several places had windows partially or completely removed, so the inside was almost an extension of the streetscape. The only thing missing was outdoor seating -- there's just not enough room. After dinner, we could walk and see a number of independent retailers that still give the street a sense of place (not a collection of chain stores you could see anywhere, U.S.A.), including an independent bookseller.

There were no parking lots breaking up the streetscape; parking was behind the cinema or other stores, or along the street. There were no businesses set back from the street, or gaps in the streetscape to discourage pedestrians. There weren't large medical offices or insurance companies or other such destinations that wouldn't interest someone interested in an evening of dining and entertainment.

And I couldn't help wondering: Why can't downtown Framingham be like that? Do we have the will to try to reimagine an area of our downtown to include an enticing streetscape with positive surprises and delight?

Visit Art Gone Wild

I finally had a chance to see the "Art Gone Wild" exhibit at Garden in the Woods, and I definitely recommend it. It's a fun collection of a cross between natural landscaping touches and outdoor art, and it's especially nice to see some new mini-exhibits along the main Curtis trail that many of us have walked numerous times.

I didn't take photos this weekend, since I was visiting in mid-day when the light wasn't at its best, but I hope to be back again to take some pictures of a few of the installations.

Framingham is very fortunate to have a place like Garden in the Woods in our community. Although we also have a number of public parks -- town as well as state run, pretty much all woefully underfunded -- Garden in the Woods is another "third place" essentially public space although run by a private non-profit. Join as a member, and you can visit as many times as you want for no additional charge. It's beautifully maintained and a lovely, peaceful space that draws visitors from far beyond MetroWest.

‘Keeping Boston Walkable’

"If at any given time you look and see that pedestrians along our streets are not diverse, it may be a signal to us that we are not making our community as accessible as we should," write Michael F. Flaherty (Boston city councilor) and Wendy Landman (executive director of Walk Boston) in a Globe op-ed piece yesterday. And, I'd add, if you look around and see there aren't any pedestrians at all, we've made a poor physical environment for walkers.

With the weather finally nice and the days long, people are naturally out walking in areas where it's conducive to do so. In my neighborhood, people are out on foot before, during and after business hours. Around my office, you see lots of people out at lunchtime on certain streets, and few if any out on others -- a clear sign that some areas were successfully designed to encourage foot traffic, while others are pedestrian-hostile.

The presence of sidewalks, as I've said before, doesn't make for walkability. The unpleasant streetscape along many portions of roads like Speen Street, Rte. 30 and Rte. 9 limit walking, although there are many destinations to walk to if the environment were better. Here are some images from Walkable Communities Inc. at walkable.org where you can see comparisons of good and bad walking environments.

Calling it ‘Smart Growth’ Doesn’t Mean It Is: Hartford Courant

There's a nice opinion piece in today's Hartford Courant, noting that developers are starting to label a lot of projects "smart growth" that are somewhat of a stretch.

Smart growth is more than mixing different types of housing units and tossing in a convenience store or two you can walk to. It's about more traditional patterns of development that give at least equal weight to public transit and walking as a way of getting to places, as it does to driving. If you can walk to a general store and post office but have to drive everyplace else, it's not smart growth.

"Smart growth can't be built everywhere and this isn't a feasible location for it," writes Tom Condon of an over-55 project that a PR firm is pitching as smart growth. "Residents won't be able to walk to much of anything outside the development - the RV campground down the street? - so will have to drive everywhere. There are no transit options. There are as yet no utilities. There will be one main road in and out, so there isn't much connectivity and traffic may be an issue." It may be a plus that plans call for cluster development and preserving some open space, but that's not the typical definition of "smart growth."

Condon likens the smart growth phrase to what once happened to "natural food," he says:

"This initially referred to vittles that contained no artificial ingredients and were minimally processed. But soon the corporate food industry co-opted the term and started calling everything "natural," whether or not it was laden with preservatives, fillers, taste-enhancing chemicals and God knows what else.

"Thus the term 'natural food' lost much of its meaning. . . .

"So, maybe the smart growth people - and the New Urbanism folks as well - need to do what the foodies did. They changed the term to 'organic' and created certification standards"

Interesting.

It is a good sign, though, that developers now want the "smart growth" label!