"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.
Not appropo of the blog, Gustavo Cerati, the lead singer of the South American super "rock en Espanol) band, Soda Stereo, has died, after having been in a coma for four years--he collapsed after a concert. Today's Post has an obituary.
posted by Richard Layman @ 11:56 AM&Permanent Link
I am an urban/commercial district revitalization and transportation/mobility advocate and consultant. I was a principal in BicyclePASS, a bicycle facilities systems integration firm, based in Washington, DC. Now I'm in Salt Lake City for family reasons. Urban economic competitiveness is dependent on efficient transit and mixed use, compact places. Therefore, I end up writing a lot about mobility and urban design. I still own a house in DC, so I write a lot about Washington, DC issues. I try to write so that "universal lessons" are evident in the entries, regardless of the place.
Jane's (Jacobs) Walks, first weekend in May
Parking Day, 3rd Friday in September
Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan
Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Legislation
Cambridge, Maryland Commercial District Revitalization Framework Plan
Easy print Florida Market Directory
Florida Market Map & Directory
Urban Safeway Design Misses Mark op-ed, WBJ
Temper Walmart Glee with Planning op-ed, WBJ
ANC4B Large Tract Review Report on Walmart, 5/2011
ANC4B Large Tract Review Report on Walmart, Summary Recommendations
Bordercross Communications (Corinna Moebius)
This is None: Storytelling by Design
Capital City Market (w/Frozen Tropics)
Dr. Transit/League of Transit Doctors
3 Comments:
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2014/09/gentrification-is-the-new-ronald-reagan/379711/
wow, that article is pretty simplistic. Interesting though about the drumbeat by the young (e.g., Kriston Capps or Lydia DePillis) about the height limit and/or historic preservation as the major barriers to "lower cost housing".
Like all the hand wringing out west in states like Utah or Nevada about how the federal govt. owns so much land (although much of that land isn't really developable), the biggest reason for higher costs is that 1/3 of the city's land is federal and restricted from housing development.
That reality is exacerbated by the height limit sure, and historic preservation a bit, although not for the reasons that people think.
It's not like everyone wants to live in 30 or 40 story towers...
DC is small, and the housing stock was mostly built when the city was small.
Now more people want to live here and the city was never built to be able to accommodate such population, cheaply, even though L'Enfant's plan was designed to allow for a dense city.
Even now, I don't think that the demand right now is great enough to make the assembly cost of a block of rowhouses worthwhile enough to build a large multinunit building.
Plus, the point I made the other week using the example of Loree Grand. New multiunit housing for the most part will be more expensive than the housing it replaces, not cheaper, except over multi-decade time frames.
2. ... but when I was in Minneapolis in 2007 I was intrigued by all the ads in the local alternative weekly for cheap studio space for musicians in old manufacturing buildings and warehouses.
... and the AvalonBay (formerly Archstone) property at 1st and M NE has a couple of music studio spaces that tenants can use...
.... appropo of Cleveland and not the Rock Music Hall of Fame, there was a piece in the WSJ on Cleveland's downtown real estate market, which right now price wise favors buying. One couple featured bought a 1,900 s.f. condo in the Flats for $320K.
We just saw an open house in our neighborhood for a 1915 Four Square, probably 2,000 s.f. on the two main floors, with a full finished basement and a finished, but small, attic, for $800K...
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