‘A Place To Shop And Enjoy The Atmosphere’

That's not what you get with a row of strip malls and big box retailers. It is what you get when you create a commercial district with a sense of place -- including a pleasant streetscape and pedestrian environment. (If you haven't yet, please do take a look at this Urban Advantage presentation, which shows exactly what a nicer streetscape can do for a business district).

The city of Holladay, Utah, is working on an ordinance designed to create a more walkable commercial center. "A little more homey, not big-boxey," community development director and architect Ken Millard told the Salt Lake City Tribune. "We want activity on the streets again."

The article explains:

As it stands, the area is a hodgepodge of aging storefronts, a spiffy strip mall adjacent to City Hall and the state's oldest pharmacy.

But crumbling asphalt, a dearth of sidewalks and the "dangerous" five-pointed intersection create what some in the city call "an embarrassment."

The ordinance - tweaked often since the spring - outlines size restrictions, how far a building can be set back from the street, aesthetics and landscaping standards.

"It tries to create a village instead of having walls that are 50 feet high," says City Manager Randy Fitts. "We want to make this a place to shop and enjoy the atmosphere."

Stopping Sprawl Is Up To Us

"Only when a substantial number of ordinary citizens decide that it's a critical national issue and follow conservation groups into battle will the destructive effects of sprawl move to the forefront of the national agenda," writes Anna Quindlen in an opinion piece for Newsweek magazine. "Sensible and ecologically sound development is possible, but people have to seek and support it. Otherwise the hideous stretches of superstores and supermarkets that turn downtowns into ghost towns will begin to meet across the great suburban plain, and every former cornfield in America will have a name like Fox Run. Without the fox."

This is a piece worth reading. She notes that sprawl isn't regulated by one or two governmental agencies, but by cities, towns and states across America. She compares sprawl to smoking -- and how it took concerted efforts of many, including massive public education campaigns, year after year, to finally have an effect in curbing the deadly habit. A similar, massive and sustained effort is needed to combat sprawl.

"[I]f you asked many Americans what is most devaluing the quality of their lives, I suspect the answer would be that their surroundings look like Monopoly boards at the very end of a hectic game," she writes.

"If that doesn't change, our kids will wind up in an unlovely and unlivable place, sitting in endless traffic because the exurbs have moved still farther out...., drinking degraded water because the water table has been polluted, taking pictures on vacation to prove that forests still exist."

Wal-Mart Part Of A Mixed-Use Development?

The world's largest retailer isn't exactly giving up the big-box store. But the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that in order to get a foothold into urban Atlanta, one proposed new Wal-Mart "is planned as part of a mixed-use development, including a second story of retail shops, apartments, streetscaping and decked, hidden parking. . . .

"The boulevard will have trees, fountains, benches, bike racks and restaurants with outdoor seating and a linear park that will lead to the apartments — not a typical Wal-Mart look."

Too bad we didn't get anything like that in Framingham. But then again, none of our town officials have demanded such things -- nor do our zoning regulations.

5.5 Miles of Assabet Rail Trail To Open This Fall

"After years of slow progress, the Assabet River Rail Trail is poised for a breakthrough with the expected opening this fall of a 5.5-mile stretch linking the downtowns of Marlborough and Hudson," the Boston Globe's West Weekly reports today.

"Supporters of the bike path, which will eventually run more than 12 miles from Marlborough to Acton, say the completed section will mark a milestone in the project's stop-and-go history."

Dunchan Power, a member of the group promoting the trail, told the Globe: "This path will connect two downtowns, and at peak hours, it's a very competitive route timewise with automobiles."

Why Johnny Can’t Walk To School

That's the title of a report published in 2000, and if anything, the situation has gotten worse -- more new schools built on large tracts of land in areas where it's impossible for kids to walk. That forces local governments to bus them all, or their parents to drive them.

There's a loss to the community as well, when a school is no longer an anchor and focus of a neighborhood, but tucked away somewhere like a big-box retailer. "Like residential or commercial sprawl, 'school sprawl' is contributing to the dismemberment of communities around the country," the report notes.

Meanwhile, in Fairfield Ohio, parents are facing the cutting of school buses for budgetary reasons coupled with police warnings that students shouldn't walk to the new high school because it's unsafe.

""Don't try to walk to school. There is no safe way to walk to the high school along Gilmore Road or Holden Boulevard," said Police Lt. Ken Colburn, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.

"Fairfield isn't alone," the article notes. "In recent years, new Monroe, Lebanon, Little Miami and Indian Hill high schools have been built on large tracts at the edge of the community - without sidewalks - which require most students to arrive by car or bus. "

Horrible planning! What about students whose parents aren't available to serve as chauffer service? They're advised to get a ride from someone else.

""That's the last thing I want, a car full of teenagers," one mother told the paper.