At the November 10, 2015 Republican presidential debate, candidate Rand Paul said that inequality in cities — the gap between the rich and poor — “seems to be worst in cities run by Democrats.” His comment received rousing applause from the audience, and much media attention.
It’s a Feature, not a Bug: Inequality in Liberal Cities More »
The disparity between the “haves” and “have nots” is perhaps nowhere more striking than in New York City. One end of the economic spectrum is best symbolized by the array of new condominium skyscrapers reshaping the city’s skyline (top price, $95 million).
When ‘To Protect and Serve’ Becomes ‘To Shame and Ridicule’ More »
Dispersed, car dependent land use patters — sprawl for short — is more expensive for cities than a pattern of development favoring density. That’s the takeaway from a report by Smart Growth America.
New Research Reveals the Cost of Sprawl to Municipal Coffers More »
The deciding factor in Panasonic’s move of its North American headquarters from Secaucus, New Jersey to Newark was public transportation, according to Jim Reilly, Vice President of Corporate Communications.
Urbanization – migration away from the suburbs and to the central city – will be the biggest real estate trend in 2015, according to a new report from ULI and PwC. The Emerging Trends in Real Estate report, in its 36th year of publication, makes projections in commercial and residential real estate for the coming year.
In real estate, the smartest move for developers is to build and invest in cities that have multiple transportation options. To be competitive, embrace transit-oriented development (TOD). Those are two main takeaways of a report from Cushman and Wakefield exploring 10 major cities (Mexico City, Manhattan, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Washington D.C., Miami, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco) experiencing rapid population growth. The most prosperous were those that were transit oriented.
Cities that Embrace Transit-Oriented Development Prosper More »
Big cities aren’t the only places working hard to create terrific communities. I was reminded of this fact when visiting Roanoke, Virginia over the past few days to attend CityWorks(X)po, a conference for change agents and placemakers. Going in, I was completely unfamiliar with the city, but was delighted with what I discovered there during my short visit.
Roanoke, Virginia placemaking shows a city on the rise More »
Why do so many Americans choose to live in the suburbs, despite the increasingly long commute times and lack of community often associated with these places Benjamin Ross, a Washington D.C.-based transit activist whose grass-roots lobbying efforts led to the planned Purple Line in Maryland, argues that suburbia has a persistent allure because it is a great “velvet rope” separating those of means from the rest of us.
Do Americans seek out a velvet rope of status in suburbia? More »
“Good fences make good neighbors,” Robert Frost wrote in the poem “Mending Wall.” It is a line that captures the 1914 poem’s themes of boundaries, ownership, and privacy perfectly. But today, 100 years later, fences are becoming more of a quaint notion in an increasingly urbanized world. In another 100 years, will streets be viewed in the same way?
Ever since George Romero’s 1978 film “Dawn of the Dead” (arguably the best zombie film of all time, with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), zombies have symbolized modern-day anxieties, specifically American consumerism. For what is a zombie but a mindless automaton consuming everything in its path? But give me a little latitude here, because I believe a strong case can be made that zombie movies also mirror migration trends and settlement patterns, and the new movie “Warm Bodies” gives hope that things are headed in the right direction.
The Rebirth of the Zombie and — Dare I Say it — Walkable City More »
At a recent tour of Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health in Washington, D.C., Dr. Ted Eytan displayed a photograph of Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado Springs, Colorado medical office (see below), and asked: “In this picture, what’s the most toxic structure to humans?”
We have been taught to hate sprawl in America, yet, in the past 10 years, our country has become, on average, slightly more sprawling than in the decade prior.
Arlington County TOD Linked to Health, Sprawl Study Says More »
A new study commissioned by Arlington County shows that the Columbia Pike Streetcar would spur billions of dollars in revenue for Arlington and Fairfax counties.
Columbia Pike Streetcar Would Bring Billions to Arlington and Fairfax More »
Parking isn’t something many people think about until it’s unavailable. Even city planners have historically considered parking somewhat of an afterthought.
Arlington Looks to Avoid Parking “Tragedy of the Commons” More »
I have written about Activity Centers before, to less than stellar Internet traffic.
My concerns regarding how to market the regional planning initiative have been shared by my Mobility Lab colleague Paul Mackie, and we have struggled to come up with a hook or angle for these neighborhoods that will capture the imagination of the D.C. public.
Activity Centers Aim to Increase D.C. Region’s Future Growth, Avoid Infrastructure Chaos More »