Actively Pedestrian Hostile

The commercial/retail area along Rte. 30 in Framingham that borders Natick isn't just "not pedestrian friendly." It is actively pedestrian-hostile to the point of insanity.

There are literally hundreds of office workers within a 10-minute walk of Shoppers World, in buildings along Speen Street and the Leggat-McCall connector. Yet it is truly frightening to try to take that walk -- and not just because sidewalks haven't been cleared.

I discovered this today while trying to walk to the new Fidelity building from my office on Speen Street. It takes about 7 minutes to get there ... although crossing the huge swath of asphalt that is the intersection between the Legatt-McCall connector and Rte. 30 is downright scary. Then you get to the other side, where the Fidelity building is .... and there's NO CONVENIENT WAY FOR PEDESTRIANS TO GET TO THE BUILDING! Without snow, you can scramble across the grass and down a steep slope; but now, with all the snow, forget that. So, you've got to walk along the road leading to Shopper's World in order to get to the driveway into Fidelity ... even though there's NO SIDEWALK AT ALL, and zooming traffic.

WHY didn't any of our planners demand simple pedestrian access? And why is it impossible for me to take a 10-minute walk to Shoppers World on my lunch hour? I got as far as the Logan Express bus terminal, but trying to cross that next enormously busy intersection (5 or 6 lanes of traffic) without a crosswalk was too daunting.

SHAME. It is an ABSOLUTE SHAME that lack of requesting a few simple, inexpensive accommodations to foot traffic has prevented so many people from doing some lunchtime errands without their cars. Most of my co-workers take their cars to go just half a mile, because it really is scary and unpleasant trying to walk around there.

More Signs Of ‘Smart Growth’ In California

Even in the land of the car, people are starting to understand that auto-centric development -- to the total exclusion of walker-friendly environments -- at some point starts hurting quality of life. Suburban sprawl simply doesn't scale -- and as more areas get developed and sprawl moves ever further from jobs, such as has happened with heavier development around and beyond Rte. 495 in Mass. -- people get tired of sitting in traffic.

"There are signs that the smart-growth message is breaking through in [Coachella V]alley," observes the Desert Sun (Palm Springs). For instance, there are more projects in the works that combine residential and commercial elements to create self-contained communities.

"Increasingly, the aim of city planners and developers is to build areas where people live, shop and mingle without having to drive."

For example, Palm Desert "has zoned its long-undeveloped northern district, known as University Park, to include more high-density housing and pedestrian friendly commercial centers." And in the downtown area, "a mixed-use center - possibly including condos or apartments - is among several ideas being considered to replace the deteriorating Desert Fashion Plaza."

People in the article talk about the need for "a sense of place," where people can live, socialize and walk around as well as shop. Fighting traffic to drive in and out of soul-less strip malls isn't the lifestyle many people want anymore.

‘Where Crack Once Ruled, Construction Now Booms’

"From central Brooklyn to the South Bronx to the farthest corners of Staten Island, new homes in the city are being built in numbers not seen in a generation," the New York Times reports today.

New York City approved construction of more than 25,000 housing units last year -- the highest since 1972. And many of those new homes are being built "in neighborhoods best known 10 years ago for their brisk crack trade and overwhelming economic misery."

Why? The article gives some credit to city policies encouraging this, as well as "a confluence of factors, including the city's rising population - fueled in large part by immigrants who are willing to take a chance on underdeveloped areas that are no longer riddled with crime - as well as the city's continual housing shortage and protracted low mortgage rates."

So let's recap here. A community with a housing shortage and lots of immigrants -- sound familiar, anyone? -- is able to generate an environment for new housing for middle-class residents.

‘All The World’s A Car Park’

...or parking lot, to those of us who speak the American dialect of English. That's the headline in a Guardian Unlimited (U.K.) review of the film Chain, which examines "the homogenised interzones of privately owned public space - shopping malls, hotel complexes, theme parks - that multinational corporations have remade in their own global-branded image, letting regional colour fade to a concrete grey. "

Yet more proof that local planning officials have to be tough and demand designs that give us a sense of place, instead of soul-less sprawl.

Says the review: "The full power of Jem Cohen's feature film Chain doesn't hit until the closing credits, which reveal that the movie's anonymous landscape of chain stores and highway interchanges was shot in seven countries and 11 American states. . . .

"A hybrid of fiction and documentary, and a brilliantly discomfiting twist on the "location shoot", Chain is also something of a Ballardian horror story."

Here’s How To Revitalize A Downtown

There's an important article in today's Carlisle (Pa.) Sentinel about how to boost a tired downtown. The key is what consultants George E. Thomas and Susan Nigra Snyder call "the Madonna effect:" reinventing a commercial center every few years based on current consumer desires and trends.

"That means forgetting about images of a 1950s era downtown as the regional shopping and entertainment center where people went for just about everything, they say," the article explains. "Instead, Carlisle must transform itself into a destination for people seeking leisure activities. . . . One solution for revitalizing downtowns today is transforming the old 'Main Street' into 'Leisure Main Street.' Such centers offer unique niche stores and boutiques, restaurants and entertainment venues that can thrive in smaller storefront space, the consultants say."

Think how Waltham's Moody Street rejuvenated -- ethnic restaurants, appealing riverfront (including boat rides on the Charles), a movie theater and mixed-use housing, all with an appealing, walkable streetscape. It's a park-once, walk-to-multiple-destinations downtown.

Thanks to Cooltown Studios for the link. "We're shifting from a goods to services to an experience economy, so it's wise to let the go of the 'goods' and concentrate on the experiences," writes Neil at Cooltown Studios.