Will congestion charges work (in smaller cities)?

 -- "A Test for Congestion Charges in Smaller Cities" is a Bloomberg CityLab article.

The idea of congestion charges is to assess a daily fee on motor vehicles entering the highest in demand, "most congested" parts of a city, most typically its central business district.  The intent is to use the revenues generated to fund transit and other sustainable mobility improvements, as well as to encourage motor vehicle operators to shift to transit to avoid the fee.

For congestion charges to work in center cities, the business districts can't be susceptible to competition and poaching from neighboring jurisdictions.  

(Separately, some European cities have introduced a separate charge based on CO2 emissions.  See "London introduces Ultra Low Emissions Zone for vehicles with charges up to $130," ABC News.)

FWIW, I don't think congestion charges will work in smaller cities, at least in the US, because for the most part metropolitan areas are super de-concentrated.  And the quality of transit options tends to be sub-par.

The article is about Oxford, England, which is imposing a low emissions vehicle charge, not a congestion charge technically.  But Oxford is probably an exception to the general rule, because of the dominant university.  It's not like Oxford University will move out of Oxford to the suburbs. 

From "Does Polycentric Urban Spatial Development Lead to Less Commuting : A Perspective of Jobs-housing Balance" 

In short the issue has to do with monocentric versus polycentric development patterns.  Monocentric places will be able to impose congestion charges not worrying that it will induce and support business recruiting by alternative commercial districts.  It will be much harder to induce compliance in polycentric areas subject to inter-city competition.  

See Cities in Full for a more detailed discussion of monocentric versus polycentric development patterns wrt both center cities and transit systems.

AP photo, London.

Instead, there is intra-metropolitan competition and the polycentric pattern of business district development--e.g., in the DC area you have business centers in Crystal City (now called National Landing), Rosslyn and Ballston in Arlington County, Alexandria, not just in Potomac Yard/National Landing but elsewhere, multiple centers in Fairfax County but especially Tysons, Reston, and Fair Lakes, Bethesda and the I-270 Corridor in Montgomery County, with lesser centers in Rockville, Silver Spring, and Wheaton, to some extent in New Carrollton in Prince George's County, and independent centers in Loudoun County around Dulles Airport, Ashburn, etc.

Looking west on Lee Highway in Arlington, lines of cars split between taking Interstate 66 or staying on Lee Highway during rush hour on Dec. 4, 2017. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Any of these jurisdictions would be tempted to and would use congestion charges (tolling) in DC as a way to recruit DC-based businesses.  

For example, it is argued that one reason that Virginia has added tolling to I-66, a major route to DC, is to encourage firms to relocate to Northern Virginia from DC, as a way for their employees to be able to avoid driving into DC and paying a toll ("Did Va. Gov. McAuliffe and his transportation team mislead I-66 commuters on tolling? Not really, but his team could have been more clear," Washington Post).

New York City.  As it is, New York City approved a congestion charge, which with the delays as a result of the covid-induced migration from office buildings to working at home, is slated to take effect next year ("Congestion Pricing Is Coming to New York. Everyone Has an Opinion," New York Times).

I'm not sure that post-covid, a congestion charge will work in NYC, the one city heretofore in the U.S. that I thought it would work in.

But I think it should probably be pushed out later, because Manhattan's office districts have been pummeled by that outmigration.  A congestion charge will give non-transit users one more reason not to go back to the office.

And even Manhattan faces competition from other parts of New York City like Long Island City, the suburban office district in Westchester, New York north of the city, districts in Connecticut, and in New Jersey, especially Jersey City, which developed a strong positioning as "back office" support for New York City's financial services businesses (a role first played by Long Island City).

Even Manhattan isn't quite as comparable to London, Stockholm, or Singapore, which don't have the kind of polycentric activity center development pattern common to the US.

Suburban districts may have a better position for imposing congestion charges.  Ironically, it may be places like Tysons in Fairfax County, Virginia (versus DC), Greater Palo Alto in the San Francisco Bay region ("Mapping the Polycentric Metropolis: journeys to work in the Bay Area," Under the Raedar) (versus San Francisco), even Bellevue in Suburban Washington (versus Seattle) or the Buckhead District in Atlanta, have a better position for imposing such charges compared to the central business districts (Downtown) in the center cities in those metropolitan areas.

Congestion zones are too small to have the desired effect?  A separate Bloomberg article ("What Comes After London’s Congestion Charge?") argues that the London congestion charge isn't doing enough to limit negative environmental effects, because the zone to which the charge applies is too small relative the London metropolitan area.  It recommends a broader "road journey" charge.

Howard University announces wide ranging building program

Not unironically after a multi-week campus sit in protesting the lack of quality in dorm accommodations ("Rats, mold, roaches: Howard students stage sit-in over housing conditions," Guardian), Howard University has just announced a major building program ("Howard University announces historic $785 million investment in new buildings, renovations," Washington Post).

Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press.

I think it's great.  I hope that one element will be addressing the problem with the dormitories, which in part is fallout from outsourcing and should be a lesson that outsourcing can create more problems than it solves.

Over the years I've written about related issues:

-- University-driven revitalization

-- "Naturally occurring technology districts" with Georgia Avenue and nearby universities as an example

-- Howard University's hospital issues (they created a management contract with Washington Adventist Hospital system, offloading the associated costs and risks, with the aim of eventually selling to them the hospital)

-- ideas by Temple University journalism professor George Miller about how HBCUs can better serve center cities ("The other George Miller idea: creating multi-college innovation centers in (cities) Philadelphia | Creating public library-college education centers as revitalization initiatives" and "HBCUs and the city: Relocating Cheyney University to Philadelphia" -- be sure to read the comments for additional resources).

Connecting better to the community.  The building expansion program also provides an opportunity for the university to connect better to the city outside of the campus.

Map of Howard University Campus, by Mary Belcher, 11"x14"

As someone (yes a white guy) who lived in DC for 32 years, I thought it was unfortunate that the campus is hidden behind Georgia Avenue. Granted, colleges are cloisters and designed to be separate.

When I would bike to Downtown via 4th Street, I always appreciated the backside of the campus and wished that the city would have redesigned the street in asphalt block to make it connect better to the campus and tame the traffic.

But wow, the college core campus is gorgeous and it's a shame more people don't know about it, aren't aware of it.

(I only used the HU college library once or twice in my 32 years, and never, to my chagrin, went to see the Moorland-Spingarn archives). 

I do think the university should think about how to increase connections to the area around the campus, through wayfinding and cultural interpretation signage programs, including directional signage to and from Georgia Avenue, campus architectural tours, marketing the culture better to the wider community (e.g., I love the Cramton Auditorium that is a somewhat art deco building), etc.  

-- "World Usability Day and Urban Planning," 2017

-- Wayfinding and Signage at UCSD, Selbert Perkins Design

-- Newcastle University wayfinding, FW Design

-- "New signs aim to share Clemson University's 'complete' history," Anderson Independent Mail

Cultural history interpretation sign, Martin Luther College

Outdoor public art at Newcastle University.

For example, a couple years ago I came across an old article "New 'Discover' guide highlights the cultural gems which are part and parcel of Newcastle University," ) about how Newcastle University produced a guidebook to the cultural resources on its campus, including public art, architecture, events, facilities, books/libraries, and objects.

Unfortunately, the guide is not available online, but it's a great example of how universities can better promote such resources beyond the strict population of the campus.

Table of contents from Newcastle University Discover Guide

Similarly, Waseda University in Tokyo is repositioning its campus cultural resources as available to all, that the university is a steward and promoter of such resources.  

One example at Waseda is its new library and cultural center devoted to the work of author Haruki Murakami ("Peek inside Waseda University’s brand new Haruki Murakami library," Lithub).

Christopher Alexander, Influential Author of "A Pattern Language," Passes Away at 85

 -- article from Planetizen

Many of the great ideas for urbanism and urban design and placemaking that people like me think we've originated have long since been outlined by Christopher Alexander, in a variety of books about urbanism, most in the set of books  A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction and The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth.

-- pdf of the book
-- "Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language: analysing, mapping and classifying the critical response, Cities, Territory and Architecture, 2017
-- "A Pattern Language: A user’s guide to the seminal architectural handbook, Harvard GSD
-- "A City is Not a Tree," essay, 1965

"24 hour" recreation center proposal: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser

 WJLA-TV reports ("24-hour Rec Center in DC hopes to deter youth crime surge") that as part of a set of anti-violence initiatives, Mayor Bowser is putting more money into recreation centers, with the presumption of longer hours.

The story features a 24-hour event at Turkey Thicket, a recreation center in Ward 5, which is miles away from DC's most violent neighborhoods.  Although according to the article, the hope is to do this every Friday.

I suggested doing something like that, although not so ambitious, back in 2015:

-- "Crime falls 40% in neighborhoods with Summer Night Lights program," Los Angeles Times
-- "Summer Evening Recreation Program at Muskegon High School gets young people off the streets," Muskegon Chronicle
-- Parks After Dark: Preventing Violence While Promoting Healthy, Active Living report, LA County Department of Parks and Recreation
--The Real Deal: The Evolution of Seattle, Washington’s At-Risk Youth Program
-- "Rethinking Sports-Based Community Crime Prevention: A Preliminary Analysis of the Relationship Between Midnight Basketball and Urban Crime Rates," Journal of Sport and Social Issues

Los Angeles has offered a "Summer Night Lights" program for a number of years, aimed at reducing neighborhood and youth violence.

LA Summer Night Lights program, infographic, 2018 results.

FWIW, over the years, I've suggested that at least in the summer, recreation centers stay open til midnight ("Summer hours for parks, libraries, pools, and recreation centers") and I wondered why DC starts closing outdoor pools in August, when hot weather often continues into the beginning of October.

And some neighborhood schools in some places, not DC, open their libraries in the summer.

Plus, even before I blogged (so before 2005), I suggested that DC's central library downtown be open til midnight.  Later I learned that in Montgomery County's conurbations (Silver Spring, Bethesda, Rockville, etc.), during the summer libraries are open til 9 pm Friday and Saturday nights.  Montreal's main library is open til 10 pm many nights of the week.

Too often, schedules for public facing civic assets--schools, libraries, parks, recreation centers--are not congruent with public needs, but focused on the convenience for the agencies running the facilities.

Harvesting best practice: not.  I am always left nonplussed about how DC doesn't seem to do much in the way of harvesting and evaluating best practice before developing programs of its own.  Which is probably why such programs tend to be ineffective and poorly thought out.

Social infrastructure.  The ideas here have to do with providing more social infrastructure to distressed communities, not less.

-- "Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021

How to do it.  Obviously, you don't want hours of operation to compete with school.  At the very least recreation centers should be open til 10pm, and maybe 2 am or 24/hours on weekends and during school breaks including summer.  There should be age restrictions based on school status--kids in school shouldn't be at a recreation center at 3 am on a school night.

But you want recreation and other activities to be made available to older youths, beyond school age, to provide alternatives too.

Swimming in the Potomac River

Badeschiff Pool and beach, River Spree, Berlin.

There is a local op-ed in the Washington Post, "The Potomac River is swimmable again. D.C. should legalize it," by the chair of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, making the point that since it is now safe to swim in the DC portion of the Potomac River, swimming in the river should be legalized.

I mentioned this in a post in January, "Waterfronts/rivers/canals as districts needing special and ongoing "zoning" and environmental review," and how some cities like Berlin, Paris and sometimes New York, have "pools" within local rivers as an element of parks planning and amenities provision.

Josephine Baker Pool, River Seine, Paris.

Separately, I argue that if you want people to care about rivers and lakes (and beaches) they need to be able to engage with those resources.  

For places without beaches, an in-river or lake pool is a way to do so.

Ideally, the Georgetown BID and other stakeholders could bring something like this about, along with improving ways to access Roosevelt Island.

-- "Revisiting: Access to Theodore Roosevelt Island, a national park in Washington, DC," 2022

Below: Flickr photo by Mr. T in DC of the Potomac River from the Key Bridge.

Launching an initiative to put a pool in the Potomac would bring the issue to a head.  

The Massachusetts organization Trustees for Reservations has been a leader in bringing about greater engagement with and access to Boston Harbor ("Trustees of Reservations offers a glimpse of its first urban waterfront park, on Boston Harbor" and "A new vision for Boston’s waterfront — and climate resiliency," Boston Globe).

Chicago, Cleveland, and of course New York City are other cities with "urban beaches."

Edgewater Beach and Beach House, Cleveland

Philadelphia has a variety of activation initiatives for its river waterfronts too.

DC Schools capital planning: a legacy of waste

The Washington Post reports ("Bowser proposes money for stand-alone middle school for Shaw students") that DC plans to build two new schools, a high school in Ward 3 and a middle school in Ward 1.

When I talk with people from other cities about how DC continues to build new schools when a majority are underenrolled, they're shocked because by contrast those cities find it difficult to raise the money they need for necessary capital improvements.

There's tons of planning all the time for the city's schools, so much I can't even claim to be clear about the process: local school transformation teams; charter schools; charter schools being able to be approved without taking into account enrollment demand and demographics ("Applying CEQA urban decay concept to DC charter school approval process," 2014), public schools capital planning, Allen Lew ("Allen Lew got it done," Washington City Paper), etc.

The 21st Century School Fund is a nonprofit that has done some work on master planning for DC Public Schools.

But there isn't a good master plan, a single document, covering schools.  Allen Lew's claim to fame was focusing on sub-systems within schools, not master planning for the entire school district and its facilities, e.g., HVAC, roofs, etc. ("D.C. schools chancellor recommends overhaul of capital planning process," Post).  From the article:

D.C. Schools chancellor Kaya Henderson is calling for an overhaul of the process for mapping out school modernizations in the coming years, saying that the renovations have become overly political and prohibitively expensive. 

 “My very honest assessment is that the whole CIP process is jacked up,” she said, referring to the Capital Improvement Plan, a six-year capital budget and construction plan that outlines the timing for school modernizations... 

She proposed developing a task force within the next year that would come up with a way to develop the capital plan according to some “very transparent” and “logical” criteria rather than “how loudly your community screams.” 

She said the criteria should include the building’s condition and school enrollment, with more crowded schools getting higher priority. She suggested that the number of “at-risk” students could also be a factor. 

Adding to the pressure is the cost of construction, which Henderson said has grown 30 percent, limiting the number of projects the school district can take on in a given year. “We have got to get some discipline around what kind of schools we are building,” she said.

Things haven't improved in the seven years since that article was published.

I've written a bunch about how DC doesn't have a public process for capital planning.  There is an office as part of the mayor's office, and in the Chief Financial Officer's agency, but there isn't a public process of setting priorities that is exclusive to capital projects.  Instead it's subsumed in the annual budget process.

-- "Another example of the need for more formal and open capital budgeting planning practices (in DC)," 2019
-- "Capital/civic asset planning, budgeting and management processes," 2015

This is left over from when DC was a department of the federal government, which handles capital planning the same way.  (It turns out that in the 1930s, the Executive Branch tried to create a capital planning process, but Congress disagreed.)

By contrast, most cities and counties have a capital budgeting process separate from the annual budget process, and usually it is updated every year or every two years, on a six year cycle.

I have criticized DC's schools capital planning process, because except for Wilson High School, virtually all the high schools are underenrolled.  But the city keeps tearing down schools and building new ones--and winning "sustainability awards" in the process.

-- "DC wastes $122 million on new high school: evidence of failures in capital improvements planning and budgeting," 2013
-- "DC high school that wasn't needed and rebuilt at a cost of $122 million wins sustainability award," 2015

This comes up again, as the Post reports that the city will build a new high school in Ward 3, and a new junior high school in Ward 1.

WRT the high school capacity demand in W3, years ago I suggested that: 

(1) Ellington School for the Arts, in the old Western High School, and not accessible by Metrorail even though it is a city-wide school, should instead be moved to either Coolidge or Roosevelt High Schools in Ward 4 as both are underenrolled and both are Metrorail accessible.

(2) Allowing Western High School to be able to be repurposed as a local high school

(3) Creating a single W4 high school with adequate enrollment capable of supporting a full range of classes.

By not doing that W4 still has two underenrolled high schools and W3 "needs" another high school.

Although part of the demand for Wilson can be shifted some to other city high schools, like Cardozo in Columbia Heights, which is also underenrolled.

2.  Separately, DC built a new Banneker High School on the grounds of the old Shaw Junior High.  If instead they would have rehabilitated Banneker High School in its Columbia Heights location, Shaw Junior High School could be reopened.  But the new plan calls for a new middle school on the site of the old Banneker High School.

-- "Banneker vs. "Shaw middle school" matter as another illustration of failures from the lack of public capital planning processes in DC," 2019  

Instead the city has or will build three new schools: (1) Banneker; (2) a new high school for Ward 3; (3) a new junior high for Ward 1.

The big problem: not planning and resident demand for new schools, which is more an emotional process.  As former Chancellor Henderson implied, if there were a public capital budgeting process, based on logical, transparent criteria, it would be possible, maybe, to rationalize school planning.

But DC, comparatively, is wealthy so it can waste money left and right.

But given the reality that there isn't a growing student population in the city, building so many new schools (Woodson, Dunbar, Banneker, etc.) is incredibly wasteful.

===

Separately, I've written about how sometimes, underenrolled schools should be kept open as a part of planning for healthy neighborhoods.

-- "Reprint: Rethinking community planning around maintaining neighborhood civic assets and anchors," 2020/2011
-- "The bilingual Key Elementary School in Arlington County as another example of the "upsidedownness" of community planning," 2019

===

When I first got involved in urban revitalization around 2000, early in that process, there was a schools planning initiative for Spingarn High School and related schools on that campus, which included a technical school and an elementary school in Ward 7, which was adjacent to the H Street NE neighborhood, where I lived when I first got involved.

The school system contracted with Roy Strickland and his program at the University of Michigan Architecture School, to come up with a transformational plan.  Which he did.  And was abandoned a couple years later.

-- "The City Of Learning‚: School Design and Planning as Urban Revitalization in New Jersey, Berkeley, and Washington, D.C.," Urban and Regional Research Collaborative Working Paper, University of Michigan, 2003

There is no overarching approach to schools master planning.  And the charter schools are approved independently.

It's really "flawed up."

=====

There was a similar groundswell to build a new middle school in W4.  One junior high, Paul, was one of the first schools in the city to be turned into an independent charter school.  Another, Rabaut, had been shut down decades before, but in the intervening years had been sold off to charter schools.

So W4 was left without a middle school, and this hurt the pipeline for the public high schools, Roosevelt and Coolidge, because after elementary school, there was no DCPS middle school to go to.  By the time enrolling in high school came along, the students were mostly fully ensconced in the charter schools.

Anyway, their proposal was to use up most of the land of the Takoma Recreation Center, my neighborhood park.  I said, why build a new middle school when the ward is full of underenrolled schools as well as parking lots (like at Fort Totten Metrorail Station) that could be repurposed.

Fortunately, they shifted their proposal, to instead use some of the underutilized Coolidge High School.

Death of Til Hazel, King of Northern Virginia's Suburban Growth Machine

When I first got involved in these issues more than 20 years ago, of course suburban sprawl was a big issue--I lived in it from 1973 to 1978 and a couple of summers afterwards.  In the DC area, one of the key examples was sprawl in places like Fairfax County, and of course I was derisive of the quality of land use planning.  (Below: Tysons "Corner" Virginia.  In the last 15 years, "Corner" was dropped from business district branding.)

Imagine my surprise a few years later to come across a Fairfax County planning department report, The Vanishing Land: Proposals for Open Space Preservation, c. 1962, about the problems of sprawl, land use development, hopscotching of land plots furthering sprawl outwards, and recommendations for change.

From page 20, Increase of Land Consumption for Suburban Development 

"The rapid urbanization and population increase in Fairfax County, as in urban counties all over the country, are causing logical concern over the growing lack of efficient use of land necessary of efficient servicing of these lands. The mass exodus of middle and upper income families from the metropolitan center to "cheap, open, rural land, in the country," has resulted in hundreds of large-lot subdivisions which have skipped over previously serviced areas and are demanding equal services and schools further and further out." 

Page 7, the Introduction starts out with the question "Is it Too Late To Save Open Space?" 

"Fairfax County is nearing a crisis in the supply of remaining open land due to the fantastically swift, uncoordinated development in the County's urban fringe over the past two decades. This urbanization is leapfrogging its way across the entire County, replacing the cherished rural atmosphere. 

If the present rate of consumption of open land occurs for two more decades (160-200 acres per 1,000 new residents), the entire County will have been eaten up in urban sprawl, and all of the desirable tracts of open land will have vanished." 

The publication is well designed, with great images, fold-out maps, die-cut effects, a mail-in "Business Reply Card" postage-paid four question survey, etc.

Of course, those recommendations for change were never enacted, because of the power of land use interests.  And we know what happened with the land.

New Metrorail station for Tysons.  VDOT photo by Trever Wrayton.

Painting by Bradley Stevens.

One of those powerful interests was John "Til" Hazel, a lawyer and developer key to the growth and sprawl of Fairfax County and elsewhere in Suburban Virginia.  The Washington Post reports on his death ("John ‘Til’ Hazel Jr., lawyer and developer who transformed Virginia suburbs, dies at 91").

From the Washington City Paper article "The Economics of Stephen Fuller":

“Basically, the political world is controlled by the anti-growth people,” said Hazel at the press conference. “We can’t let the ‘antis’ control the world.”

From the Washingtonian article "Secrets of Success: Five Washington Business Leaders Who Went After Opportunities to Work Their Way to the Top":

Hazel's law firm had been hired to acquire the land to build the Washington Beltway. He became an expert on zoning, acquisition, and eminent domain. Later Hazel steered Ted Lerner through the legal maze so the developer could build Tysons Corner Center and the Tysons II shopping, office, and hotel complex. 

In 1961 Hazel left the law firm. He soon became a county judge and, in his spare time, practiced zoning law. Hazel realized that Northern Virginia was changing, and he wanted to be a player, not an observer. 

"A blind man could see the potential," Hazel says. "Fairfax was the frontier. It was open to ideas." But 

Hazel saw possibilities that others couldn't and–more important–was able to turn them into bricks and mortar. In 1972 he linked up with Milton V. Peterson and began developing communities like Burke Centre and Franklin Farm. By 1989 it was estimated that one of every six Fairfax residents lived on land that Hazel/Peterson developed. The company also built Fair Lakes, a 35-building office complex.

(These quotes remind me of the now defunct Regardie's Magazine, which focused on local industry, especially real estate, and the Washington Business Journal, which is devoted to real estate development coverage as well.  Bisnow a web platform on the real estate industry, grew out of WBJ in a way, as one of their writers left to create it.)

-- Capital Beltway history website

The Growth Machine thesis argues that land use intensification is the primary goal of political and economic elites, because real estate development is the primary local industry and the source of tax revenue supporting local government.

While the thesis focuses on center cities, it's fully applicable to the suburbs, as land development is the number one industry in the U.S.  And post-war growth was essential to the US in terms of economic development, GDP growth, population expansion and accommodation, etc.  

There is some academic writing that addresses these issues in terms of Fairfax County:

-- "The Growth Machine Stops? Urban Politics and the Making and Remaking of an Edge City," Urban Affairs Review (2012).
-- The Fight for Fairfax: A Struggle for a Great American County, by Russ Banham
-- "Visions of the Future as Spaces of Engagement: The Political Economy of Transit-Oriented Redevelopment in Tysons Corner, VA," Cities in the 21st Century, v. 2 (2010)
-- "Happy to Grow: Development and Planning in Fairfax County, Virginia," Harvard University

And the Post certainly covered it, such as "TIL HAZEL, KING OF THE NEW FRONTIER," which led to the publication of the book Edge City, by former Post writer Joel Garreau ("An Overview of the Edge City Theory," Thoughtco).

Trains and emergency evacuation: Ukraine and freight/emergency transportation planning | Homogeneous versus heterogeneous transportation systems

 A couple weeks ago, charlie called our attention to a great article ("On board the mobile command that's keeping Ukraine's trains running," Business Insider) on how the Ukraine Ministry of Infrastructure has responded to managing its train network in wartime conditions, with special focus on the use of trains to evacuate Ukrainians to safer areas out of the country, and how the staff no longer operates from a fixed position as that would be a highly vulnerable target for attack.  

With regard to transportation in wartime, disasters, and emergencies, there are (at least) three issues: (1) heterogeneous transportation system; (2) managing railroads and road systems; (3) capable of being ingmanagerially flexible.

Kamyshin starting a conference call with the top managers 

of Ukraine's six regional railroads. 

Alan Chin for Insider

People crowding a train platform in Kharkiv, Ukraine

Twitter photo: Nexta_TV

People waiting for trains to take them from Lviv to Poland. 

On Sunday only two trains were running and only women and children were allowed to board.

Photograph: Vincent Haiges/Avalon

Around that time was an NPR article about a volunteer effort in Poland to restore an abandoned train line to facilitate refugee trains from Ukraine ("Poland rebuilds abandoned rail tracks to Ukraine to help refugees fleeing the war").  (Also see "12 hours on board a packed train out of Ukraine," BI, "‘Everyone was fighting to get on a train’: the desperation of Ukrainians trying to reach safety," Guardian).

Ukrainian refugees lining up for services at the Berlin Train Station on March 8, 2022

Michael Sohn, AP

Since there have been other articles on train stations as gateways for Ukrainian refugees ("Berlin train station turns into refugee town for Ukrainians," AP, "Berlin's main train station becomes Ukrainian refugee welcome center," Reuters).  From the NYT:

Now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is turning Europe’s trains and ornate imperial-era stations into a new refugee crisis network, putting them on a war footing yet again. At least a dozen state- and privately owned railway operators have opened up their services for free to refugees, and their cargo trains are being deployed to bring humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

When I first read the Insider article, I thought about how the US has built, for the most part, a homogeneous mobility paradigm, around cars and trucks and the "Interstate Highway and Defense System" network of high speed roads across the nation.

"The Evolution of the U.S. Interstate Highway System," Vivid Maps

Trucks and roads work well for flexibility, but have capacity constraints both for loads and the number of vehicles, aren't particularly energy efficient, and require lots of personnel.  And they can create significant congestion.

Trains operate with small numbers of personnel and are energy efficient, but can be slower, certainly are less flexible, and are definitely vulnerable in wartime to tracks and trains being bombed. (Bombed tracks can be repaired.)

But when the highway system was created, no one ever considered there would be a time when oil would be super high in price and labor availability would be seriously constrained ("Taking Europe's Trains to Escape, or to Teach, A Conflict's Front Lines." NYT).

Freight transportation planning.  But in any case, the current supply chain logistics problems we have in the US indicate a lack of an adequate and integrated freight transportation planning policy that includes all the elements, including shipping, ports, trains, trucks and related labor issues ("Port of Los Angeles Stops Short of 24-Hour Operations, Unlike Long Beach," Wall Street Journal, "Rigged: Forced into debt, worked past exhaustion, left with nothing," USA Today).

Emergency evacuation.  And I thought back to various hurricane evacuation efforts in Louisiana (Katrina) and Texas (Rita), how the road system was overwhelmed, leading to traffic deaths, and how some people called for train evacuations not realizing that we have so little resources available for passenger train service that unlike in Ukraine today or Europe more generally, for the most part in the US, passenger train service isn't a realistic option for emergency transportation.

Evacuation from Houston in advance of Hurricane Rita, 2005.

Photo: Stan Honda, AFP/Getty Images.

If there are multiple tracks, all railroad tracks can be used for unidirectional traffic, which for safety reasons, is not possible with freeways.

Heterogeneity versus homogeneity in transportation planning.  In any case, the Ukraine example, as sad and as horrifying as it is, demonstrates the importance of hetereogenity in transportation planning and the provision of infrastructure, that you need both train service and car/truck service for both passenger and freight mobility in times of emergency. 

Stepping up on response to local "disasters" that are small, but big to the victims

Emergency personnel on the scene of an apartment fire and possible explosion in the 2400 block of Lyttonsville Road in Silver Spring on March 3, 2022. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

There is a letter to the editor in the Washington Post ("What's next for tenants displaced by the Lyttonsville fire?") about the aftermath of a multi-building fire at an apartment complex in the Greater Silver Spring area of Montgomery County, Maryland, where two buildings were destroyed, and two still standing buildings have been condemned.

The letter makes the point that substantive resources and help aren't being provided to the tenants, who need a lot more than the ability to sign up for recreation classes--one of the offerings made available at a recent "community fair" aimed at helping the victims of the fire.

This piece, "Revisiting stories: the need to provide programs to step in and deal with multiunit properties as they age," focuses on building safety a bit more generally, not about providing assistance to tenants as a result of building failure.  That should be reconsidered.

FEMA is a behemoth, providing aid to disaster aid to victims of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, etc.  But it doesn't respond to localized disasters of a micro-scale.

But could it be a model for localities, organized perhaps at the state level, for a way to provide a coordinated response and substantive help in a case such as this, the Surfside condo collapse, condominium condemnations ("Residents of SE DC condo forced to move out due to unsafe conditions," WJLA-TV), etc.?

Resources to review for developing program models include those produced for large scale disaster management, victims of crime and terrorism, etc., for example:

-- "Helping Victims of Mass Violence & Terrorism: Planning, Response, Recovery, and Resources: Planning," US Department of Justice
-- "Disaster Relief: Help Now, Help Later, Help Better," University of Pennsylvania
-- "Immediate Relief/Individual Support," Disaster Philanthropy Playbook

In the post-9/11 world, most communities have created agencies for emergency management, separate from police, fire and other emergency services.  

This kind of function could be added to those agencies.  Although the advantage of organizing at the state scale is that in most communities such events are infrequent, meaning directing ongoing resources to such functions could be seen as "a waste," and people don't have the ability to develop substantive expertise.  Then again, at the state scale, concern and capacity could be pretty distant from local needs.  Definitely a conundrum on how to organize such programs.

Project Rehab, University City District, Philadelphia: Best Practice Neighborhood Stabilization Program

In 2020/2021, I wrote a five part series on creating a model framework for systematic neighborhood stabilization, suggesting the creation of a national program comparable to the Main Street commercial district revitalization program, but for neighborhoods/residential property, modeled after a program created in Pennsylvania, called Elm Street.

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)"
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2"
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)"
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)"
-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," 2021 

The major point is the framework and ability to implement, but that programs need complementary remedies to be able to act, and organized initiative so that they are able to implement and effect change.

Photo from the first Project Rehab project, in 2012.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article, "A ‘Mr. Fixit’ helps West Philly residents and businesses cut through red tape," about the Project Rehab initiative of the University City District business improvement district.  It focuses on addressing problem properties--distressed, vacant, etc.--as a way to "cure nuisances" by assisting the property owner, rather than seizing or demolishing buildings.

It's not a huge program, they've addressed about 5 properties per year since the program's creation in 2011.  That demonstrates not failure, but how time consuming the process can be.

From the website:

While Project Rehab responds to the unique needs of each property owner, the core steps of every project are the same. 

 1. Property Monitoring and Identification UCD uses a variety of methods to monitor problem properties in the district. Staff conduct physical surveys to identify distressed real estate, and seek input from community and civic associations as well as concerned community members. Staff also work closely with the City, making use of information and investigations gathered by the Department of Licenses and Inspections. 

2. Owner Identification Project Rehab then uses a variety of resources to clarify property ownership, which can be challenging to unravel. Staff conducts online research and interviews community organizations, neighbors, and owners’ family members. Project Rehab also partners with government offices such as the Philadelphia Revenue Department, the Records and Deeds Office, the Register of Wills, and Licenses and Inspections to obtain information on owners and their properties. 

3. Defining the Course of Action Once we establish contact with an owner, Project Rehab and the owner develop a course of action for the property, which often entails renovation for eventual personal use, sale, or rental/leasing. Whatever the desired outcome, UCD provides a range of free supports and services to help the owner achieve their goals: 

Financing: Working in partnership with local banking institutions, UCD drafts and develops financing packages for owners who want to finance the rehabilitation of the property. 

Rehabilitation: UCD has developed a list of licensed contractors who are experienced with the rehabilitation of distressed properties. Staff provide support and knowledge to owners throughout the process, helping to obtain all required permits, licenses and inspections. '

Sale: UCD has built a network of realtors who support those owners who decide to sell their property. Zoning: UCD connects owners with local attorneys and community organizations to work through the zoning process. 

Conservatorship: Project Rehab works with 501-4C not-for-profits to utilize Pennsylvania legislation known as the Act 135 Conservatorship Act to redevelop distressed properties with no known owners. 

Along the way, the Project Rehab team is able to deploy outside the box strategies to help each owner achieve their rehabilitation goals, regardless of the issue surrounding the real estate. From helping a family open an estate to untangling title issues to ensuring that owners are well represented while seeking equity development partners, Project Rehab is a guide and support for property owners.

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The UCD is an association so to speak, not a typical business improvement district where property owners in the district are taxed a small amount on the assessed value of the property. Instead property owners in the district pay voluntary amounts.

-- "In University City, a model for a [neighborhood improvement district]," Philadelphia Daily News, 2012

It was pointed out to me that this wasn't altruistic, but a strategy by the nonprofit property owners--University of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Amtrak, etc.--to ward off the idea of taxing nonprofit property owners as a way to generate tax revenues for cities.  Some institutions pay what are called PILOTs, or payments in lieu of taxes.  

--"Proposal to eliminate nonprofit property tax exclusion in Maine," 2015

But some cities, which have significant swathes of property off the tax rolls because of the concentration of nonprofit institutions within their borders, look to tax nonprofits too.  (Note that Ontario doesn't have the kind of tax exemption system we do in the US.  Even the provincial government and nonprofits pay property taxes.)

Separately, Pittsburgh is looking for PILOTs as a way to fund infrastructure improvements ("Pittsburgh City Council proposal would turn to nonprofits for infrastructure funding," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).  

PILOTs are an alternative to an earlier proposal to impose a 1% tax on tuition and medical bills--the city has two major hospital systems and at least two large universities, Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh ("Pittsburgh Councilman Ricky Burgess proposes 1% tax on higher-ed students, medical patients," PTR).

That built on similar proposals, at least for a capitation tax on students, in Providence, Rhode Island.  Providence College was disfavorable ("Student Fee Would Break Bond of Trust").

Speaking of the need for arts-related CDCs to buy, hold, and operate arts facilities: Seattle and BTMFBA | The Inscape Arts building

Inscape Arts’ studios are in a building that was once an Immigration and Naturalization Service building and had bars on its windows. It’s for sale, and the future of the artist studios is unknown. (Alan Berner / The Seattle Times)

Seattle Times reports, "Seattle artists fundraise to buy former INS building, now home to 100-plus studios."

I got interested in arts and culture planning in the face of multiple arts organization failures in DC and the DC area, c. 2003

--  "Cultural resources planning in DC: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" (this piece is from 2007)

In 2009, I presented at the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas national conference on cultural master planning initiated by arts disciplines as opposed to city and county government, with a special focus facilities planning:

-- "Arts, culture districts, and revitalization"

But I failed to make the point that city/county-wide initiatives ought to be in place, through an arts-based community development corporation, to deal with this, and I updated the 2009 piece:

-- "Reprinting with a slight update, "Arts, culture districts and revitalization"" 2019

(Note that I realized this omission in a conversation at an Airbnb I was staying at in Hackney Wick, London, in association with my trip to Liverpool in 2018, which was funded in part by great blogreaders.  THANK YOU.)

BTMFBA: Buy the mother f*ing building already.  Separately, I now call this set of writings BTMFBA, or "Buy the mother f*ing building already."  Instead of plaintively complain about the displacement of arts uses and the loss of facilities, do something about it.

-- "BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016
-- "When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review," 2016
-- "BMFBTA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: artists and Los Angeles," 2017
-- "BTMFBA Chronicles: Seattle coffee shop raises money to buy its building," 2018
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporation as an implementation mechanism to own property," 2018
-- "The SEMAEST Vital Quartier program remains the best model for helping independent retail," 2018
-- "BTMFBA: San Francisco's The Lab and the Mission Economic Development Agency are trying to do the smart thing," 2019
-- "A wrinkle on BTMFBA: let the city/county own the cultural facility, while you operate it (San Francisco and the Fillmore Heritage Center)," 2021

The Paris SEMAEST CDC is probably the global number one best practice example.

Seattle has a couple of initiatives that own and/or operate multiple historic theater buildings on a nonprofit basis.  

-- "Seattle preservation: Pike Place Market, Neptune Theater, and the Cinerama," 2021

And according to the article, the artists at the Inscape Arts building are working with the Cultural Space Agency,

"a new public development authority chartered by the city of Seattle in 2020 to develop cultural spaces. Matthew Richter, the Cultural Space Agency’s interim executive director, said he has spoken with multiple interested investors but has not received any financial commitments yet."

So it seems like they have the theoretical capacity, to take this to the next level, and create a cross-disciplinary initiative to buy, hold, develop, and operate cultural space.

But it doesn't seem as if the Cultural Space Agency has been charged and funded ("Seattle’s mayor approves new agency dedicated to developing cultural spaces," ST) in a manner comparable to SEMAEST ("Paris City Hall wants to revive Semaest,"Les Echos ), where it is active and proactive, as opposed to a facilitator, a seeker of investors and other stakeholders to do the job themselves, with no guarantee of positive outcomes.

Hewitt & Jordan, "Economic Function." 2004, Billboard at Arch and Coronation Streets, Sheffield, UK.  Flickr photo link with additional text and links.

I'd say creating a "public development authority" with almost zero money is an example of elected and appointed officials not understanding how real estate development works, especially for arts uses which generally are unable to compete straight up in the real estate market, against other uses that are profitable.  

When you're dealing with real estate, plaintive appeals usually go for nought.

BTMFBA.  And create the right kinds of implementing organizations to be able to do so.

Amazon, Sound Transit join to build affordable housing in Suburban Seattle: an example of creating affordable housing initiatives in association with transit infrastructure programs

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Update with regard to Amazon funding projects in the DC area.  WTOP Radio reports on two projects, at the New Carrollton and College Park Metrorail Stations, totaling $82 million for almost 750 units of new affordable housing with low rents guaranteed for 98 years.  This isn't related to the Purple Line so much, but is an example of how such a program for the Purple Line could be created.

-- "$82M in Amazon loans to fund affordable housing at 2 Metro stops"

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Independent of the introduction of new transit infrastructure, there is an "affordable housing" crisis because the population has increased and housing production hasn't kept up.

It's only accentuated by the introduction of new transit infrastructure, which usually leads to an increase in housing demand in response to better mobility conditions,

This is why many advocates decry transit infrastructure improvements as an element of gentrification, even though the process is much more complicated.

And that it is unfair that when neighborhoods improve because of the addition of transit and the resultant revitalization that instead of benefiting, legacy residents are instead displaced.

Which is why I argue that:

1.  In association with the development of new transit infrastructure there should be a simultaneous complementary plan for transit network improvements, to improve the rider experience, to increase ridership, and to increase the success of the new infrastructure from the outset.

-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writings," 2022

2.  Simultaneously, there should be a community development initiative to buy, hold, fund, and develop housing, station improvements, and neighborhood and commercial district improvements, with the aim of preserving housing affordability for existing residents, as well as new housing.  (This doesn't necessarily require the participation of the transit agency as lead developer.)

3.  And another way to target neighborhood improvements at the nexus of new transit stations is to create public improvement districts, to plan for and implement improvements in a concerted way.

-- "Revisiting creating Public Improvement Districts in transit station catchment areas," 2020

WRT #2, for the Suburban Maryland Purple Line light rail project, which will integrate into the Metrorail system, since 2007 I've suggested that a bi-county community development corporation be created to do this.

-- "Creating a transportation development authority in Montgomery and Prince George's County to effectuate placemaking, retail development, and housing programs in association with the Purple Line," 2017

Although it hasn't happened.

Mount Dennis, Toronto.  An article about the Mount Dennis neighborhood in Toronto, which is about to be served by the Eglinton light rail line, describes how the neighborhood is supportive of the new infrastructure, in part because there is a simultaneous program for neighborhood improvements ("Sidewalks, bike lanes and shops: why this neglected neighbourhood is saying ‘yes in my backyard’ to LRT development," Toronto Star), which illustrates the importance of the kind of complementary approach suggested here. 

The plans aim to make Mount Dennis a new transit hub with superior connections 

to Downtown Toronto and the Airport

The new planning framework builds on the 2019 community-initiated Mount Dennis Eco-Neighborhood Action Plan.

Note that because it's Toronto, the most populated city in Canada, densities for new development are much higher than in Suburban Seattle or DC.

From the article:

The “Picture Mount Dennis” report contains a host of recommendations to improve Mount Dennis. Among them: 

• Encouraging the development of Weston Road, which cuts diagonally through the area, as Mount Dennis’s historic main street. 
• Low and midrise buildings would continue to dominate both sides of Weston Road. The height limit would be eight stories and the goal would be to create a “pedestrian-scaled” main street character. 
• A height peak of 45 stories would apply for buildings immediately adjacent to Mount Dennis station, with those heights gradually decreasing to the north and south of the station and towards Weston Road. Choice Properties wants to build seven towers with about 2,356 units all told, with heights ranging from 20 to 49 storeys. 
• Encourage a “balanced mix of housing types, unit sizes and tenures” in all new developments in order to provide housing opportunities for a variety of income levels and family sizes. For example, new buildings with more than 80 residential units should include more space for families, so 10 per cent of the units should be three-bedroom or larger, 15 per cent of units should be two-bedroom, while an additional 15 per cent should be a combination of two and three-bedrooms. 
• New buildings with 80 or more units should have 10 per cent of units be affordable rental or affordable condos. 
• Connect a new network of bike paths — including one that runs along the length of Weston Road — to planned cycling corridors in Toronto. 
• A “post-secondary satellite campus” should be built in Mount Dennis, that could align with clean tech or an eco-business or some form of green-friendly transportation.
• Attract jobs by promoting and attracting a major business such as a mass timber production facility that provides material for wood frame buildings, a food or social innovation hub, a photography or film museum or a major arts/cultural centre.

No substantive plan for affordable housing preservation in the Purple Line corridor.  While advocates have been calling for affordable housing initiatives in the Purple Line corridor ("Op-Ed in Washington Post about preserving affordable housing in the Purple Line corridor (Department of Duh)," 2022), not much has happened in a substantive way, especially given the reality that we know what will happen in terms of increased demand ("New apartments leasing in Chevy Chase Lake in Montgomery County," Washington Post), given the experience with Metrorail and the massive increase in demand for housing near subway stations in DC, Arlington and Montgomery Counties..

Also see:

-- "East County, Montgomery County, Maryland: Council redistricting spurs ideas for revitalization | Part 1 -- Overview," 2021

Seattle.  Which is why an article in the Seattle Times, "Amazon, Sound Transit will build hundreds of apartments in Bellevue, SeaTac in affordable-housing push," sticks out.    From the article:

Sound Transit and Amazon are partnering to build 318 affordable-housing units near light-rail stations in Bellevue and SeaTac. The new apartments, funded through $42.5 million in low-rate loans and grants from Amazon, are slated for the Spring District/120th Station in Bellevue and the Angle Lake Station in SeaTac. 

The units are targeting residents who earn 30-80% area median income. In Seattle, that ranges from $24,300 to $63,300 for a single-earner household, according to the Seattle Housing Authority. Construction is likely to start in 2023 in Angle Lake and 2024 in Bellevue. 

These are the first projects announced since Amazon committed $100 million in June to build 1,200 affordable-housing units on Sound Transit properties. That funding comes from an even larger commitment Amazon made in January 2021 to launch its Housing Equity Fund, a $2 billion initiative to preserve and create 20,000 affordable homes. “

Transportation and housing costs are linked,” said Catherine Buell, director of the Housing Equity Fund. “Our hope is we’re able to not only reduce the amount that families are spending on their housing but also reduce the amount that families are spending on transportation costs.”

This is part of Amazon's Housing Equity Fund initiative, which will invest $2 Billion in affordable housing initiatives in association with its three main HQ operations in Seattle, Arlington County Virginia ("Amazon and Arlington County are providing capital to support a landmark preservation deal to create long-term affordability for over 1,300 apartment homes for a period of 99 years.," press release) and Nashville.

Granted the new initiative is in Suburban Seattle, not the center city, but to see the transit agency come together with a major area corporation, to develop specifically affordable housing is impressive, although even so, in markets where many tens of thousands of units are required, 20,000 units of new affordable housing is a drop in the bucket.

Conclusion.  At the 2014 advocacy meetings for the Purple Line, I said similar kinds of arrangements needed to be created then, to be proactive, based on the DC experience with Metrorail.

-- "Purple line planning in suburban Maryland as an opportunity to integrate place and people focused initiatives into delivery of new transit systems"
-- "Quick follow up to the Purple Line piece about creating a Transportation Renewal District and selling bonds to fund equitable development,"

I thought it was odd that they focused on examples from Denver and Minneapolis--I was told later that it was because those were light rail programs, and the Purple Line is light rail--without acknowledging the richness of examples of the impact of transit on economic development, housing cost, and neighborhood revitalization from the DC area, in association with the development of Metrorail.

Which is why 8 years later, I'm not particularly impressed by the January op-ed in the Washington Post.

Note that Greater Phoenix ("Light rail housing fund spurs 15 projects in metro Phoenix" and "Why you don't see more vacant lots along light-rail route," Arizona Republic), Minneapolis ("Affordable Housing Contributes to Equitable Transit-Oriented Development in Saint Paul’s Corridor of Opportunity," HUD), and Denver ("RTD Wants More Housing Near Stations. It May Sacrifice Unused Parking Spots To Make That Happen," Colorado Public Radio) have created affordable housing initiatives in association with light rail.  

Sheridan Station Apartments in Denver is a 133-unit, 100% affordable building 

constructed at a light rail station. 

At 8 stories, it's bigger than many comparable buildings in the DC area.

The Phoenix program has some heft, while the others don't, but even so it pales compared to Seattle.  Then again, it's more significant than what's going on with the Purple Line.

Note that along the lines of the CDC approach I suggested for Suburban Maryland, in Denver, the Urban Land Conservancy is a nonprofit real estate developer focused on constructing affordable housing developments across Metropolitan Denver.