Amenity planning for urban mixed use districts: A dog park for Union Market?

Please clean up after your dog sign, 4th Street NE, Union Market, Washington, DC

One of my forthcoming DC entries is about how it turns out "I was a force for gentrification in the city," even though I never intended that to be the primary outcome.

20 years ago, working to "save Union Market," in which I was a key player but not the lead ("Musing about Union Market on the death of Paul Pascal"), I outlined a concept for a retail plan that would work with what the market was at the time, food sales mostly, with some non food wholesale businesses too.  (* For insight into the campaign to save the market, see the addendum.)

-- "Retail planning and the Florida Market"

Washington Post graphic.

An entry in 2009 made the point that mixing residents and food businesses was somewhat incompatible, that in such situations residents become advocates for reducing the business focus of the area.  

One of the concerns expressed about the New Town redevelopment plan imposed on the Florida Market District through DC City Council legislation is the fact that by putting residents and industrial uses in close proximity, you add all the elements necessary to create significant conflicts.

This happened when people moved into housing built on an old parking lot at the Capitol Hill Hospital on 7th Street and Massachusetts Avenue NE.  And elsewhere in many places.

-- "Putting industrial uses and residents in close proximity can be a problem"

Me leading a tour of the then "Florida Market" in 2008.  Flickr photo by Mr.TinDC.

Being there last week, I think so far there is a reasonable balance between remaining legacy businesses (a minority of the previous number), mixed with new very upscale food businesses and retail including (as opposed to how "back then" the more low income focus of the DC Farmers Market building), and the apartment buildings.

But it's not like I'm there all the time.  So I don't know.

Don't complain about trash and rats when you don't provide waste cans and street and sidewalk cleaning.  Back when old line DC politicos and business interests were pushing their very average shopping and entertainment center approach (think the failed project in Prince George's County that replaced the old Cap Centre Arena), they touted their project as a way to combat rats and trash ("Developer Peddles a New Vision for an Old Market," Washington Post).

What DC Farmers Msrket, now the Union Market building looked like in 2008.  Below 2026.

My response was, the city doesn't provide any waste cans or trash collection services.  If you want to deal with public space maintenance, deal with it.  It's still messy.  But there are trash cans now, and a lot of them.  Maybe not enough and they're probably not emptied enough, but it's way better than before.

Residential housing imposes different demands for public space management and the provision of amenities.  One of the things we never talked about was with the addition of large apartment buildings, even though they provide a lot of recreational amenities on site, there was probably a need to plan for additional amenities and public spaces.

It turns out, of course, that there is great academic research on the topic.  This journal article from Progress in Planning published long after the Florida Market battle, but its conclusions seem particularly apt, "The key to sustainable urban development in UK cities? The influence of density on social sustainability."

► Dense neighbourhoods are more likely to provide good access to services/facilities. 

► Dense neighbourhoods are more likely to provide poor access to quality green space. 

► Residents in denser neighbourhoods are more likely to report feeling unsafe. 

► Generally, less social interaction occurs in denser neighbourhoods.

The point isn't to take such conclusions for granted, but to address the defects/deficits in purposeful ways, building systems that make communities better as a routine outcome.

Dog park potential of this inadvertent corner pocket park on W. 25th Street in Ogden, Utah.

I know I missed this on the H Street plan in 2003.  We should have tried to create some pocket parks on the corridor using parking lots and other interstitial spaces..  

Same with the NoMA plan--I proposed doing one c. 2005 and one was done, but we didn't include much in the way of amenities if I remember correctly.  

The NoMA business improvement district, once it was created, made that a major focus ("NoMA revisited: business planning to develop community," "(In many places) Public improvement districts ought to be created as part of transit station development process: the east side of NoMA station as an example," 2016).

Was in Ogden yesterday and they--because they did so much damage with urban renewal--have a lot of these kinds of spaces in their downtown area.  But land being at a premium in DC, it's harder.

Placemaking as a necessary element of property development.  The best informed property developers recognize the importance of integrating amenities into developments.  Although my line about it they do it only to make money, and so will only invest in such so long as the marginal return is positive, in terms of reduced vacancy of apartments and commercial spaces, with high retention rates.

-- "New trends in making offices attractive: high quality amenities | Downtown place values" (2025)

-- "How Gabriel Chipperfield beautified Bayswater," Financial Times (use archive.ph for access)

-- "ULI report: The Case for Open Space Why the Real Estate Industry Should Invest in Parks and Open Spaces" (2024)

-- "As office-centric downtowns struggle, suburbs cater to the laptop crowd," Washington Post

From the FT article:

Placemaking is nothing new. The idea of designing urban space for humans rather than cars took hold in the 1960s, and the term describing the process of creating buzzy, people-centric districts gained traction in the ’70s. What used to be the domain of urban planners, however, is now deemed an essential strategy in property development. It’s no longer good enough to fill a building with people, you need to curate a vibe around it. 

This, of course, has less to do with civic duty than the eventual payoff: it is much easier to fill developments in pleasant surroundings where shops, restaurants, schools and creative spaces are on the doorstep. Not all get it right: the development of London’s Elephant and Castle has led to heavy criticism of extreme gentrification and placing profit over people. King’s Cross, meanwhile, with its glass-encased offices, dining destinations and art college, Central Saint Martins, is widely viewed as a success story.

Chipperfield is thankful for a private equity partner who agreed to sink “a couple of million” into retail ideas that “might not make money”. In reality, the projects are commercially successful.

As far as dogs go, I remember touring new buildings in NoMA 15+ years ago and being shocked at how the buildings included wings where dog owners could live, and on site facilities, like dog washing.  But still, dogs need to be walked and that imposes demand for different kinds of accommodations outside of a building. 

Downtown amenities need more focused consideration | Mixed use districts require recreation center planning.  WRT parks planning, I wrote about this in terms of different needs for different scales ("Another example of the need to do comprehensive parks, recreation and civic assets planning at multiple scales, including neighborhoods like Columbia Heights," 2019).

It didn't specifically discuss Downtown.  Earlier, I wrote about this when a related item was before the Zoning Commission.  Back then, apartment buildings downtown successfully lobbied for a change in zoning requirements for them to reduce the amount of required recreational amenities.  They probably do provide some because people want them.

WHAT I suggested is that they should have had to pay recreation impact fees and the city should have created recreational amenities downtown.  Specifically, a recreation center.  At the time, there had been a YWCA at the corner of G Street and 7th Streets NW across from the MLK Library and Gallery Place, and it was unusual in its set of amenities as having a full sized pool.  But they sold it off and no such facility open to the public exists there.  

Similarly, this happened with the old YMCA building on Rhode Island Avenue NW just west of Dupont Circle.  They sold it off for the money, but I would have redeveloped the site, but with the inclusion of a new urban recreation center as part of the project, mixing civic and for profit functions, but vertically.

Mixed use commercial and residential districts are often ignored when creating such facilities.  Eg in DC there are plenty in the outer part of the city.  But not in the core.  In Salt Lake City, the County provides recreation centers although the city may fund the buildings.  But there are at least two serving core areas.  There could be more.  Although here residents including us, may be close to rec facilities in the county but not in Salt Lake--we go to one three miles away in Millcreek, but now I mostly go to the Wagner Jewish Community Center--it's closer and as I build my stamina again, it's an easier bike ride, etc.

Later in my writings about Silver Spring, I suggested creating a combined recreation center, arena, and roof top athletic facilities ("Creating the Silver Spring/Montgomery County Arena and Recreation Center (+ and a roof-top athletic field?)").  Something like that could be done in downtown districts, not just in DC but across the country.

General amenity planning in mixed use districts.  Writing about the post covid initiative to convert "unneeded" office buildings to housing and to attract more residents, I called for program planning to integrate a wider range amenities into Downtowns.  Although this should be extended to mixed use districts like Union Market or The Wharf.

-- "The unintended consequences of converting office buildings to housing: the need for public safety; schools; amenities" (2022)
--"What is the competitive advantage for the post-covid city? Doubling down on place values"(2022)
--"Downtown St. Paul needs 20,000 more people to thrive | implications for urban revitalization in the post covid city" (2024)

-- "From more space to socially distance to a systematic program for pedestrian districts (Park City (Utah) Main Street Car Free on Sundays)" (2020)

-- "Place-making: Reimagining and reinventing public spaces for communities" resources page, Parks for London

Public space planning and the Buckhead Collection.  In terms of public spaces, years ago (15+) I wrote about the open space and amenities planning program for the Buckhead district of Atlanta.  At the time it seemed to be one of the most comprehensive studies of the issue for dense urban districts.  I should have integrated it better into my thinking about this scale of planning.  

It was spearheaded by the Buckhead Community Improvement District, the business improvement district for the area, which is far more intense than equivalent districts in DC.  

It's funded by commercial property, and I wonder if there is that tension I've previously identified with BIDs providing services to residents, but with limited opportunities for residents to express their voices independent of business interests.  When I would raise this issue in DC, it flew over the heads of most BID staffers.  They had never considered the question.  

At least with the Buckhead CID they have formalized partnership relationships, including a number of resident-based organizations like the sustainability focused Livable Buckhead and the historic preservation organization Buckhead Heritage.  With a change in longtime leadership, the Buckhead Coalition joined forces with the CID, Livable Buckhead and the Buckhead Business Association in a more formal way.

It didn't call for a full array of park spaces, given the land constraints and the reality that not all types of park and recreational facilities can be nor should be implemented in one place.  For example, larger facilities offer more activities, and are delivered at the regional scale. 

Below are the seven types of spaces they identified as primary needs for urban districts.  Each is a single page summary, and the full plan is The Buckhead Collection: The A Greenspace Vision for City of Atlanta Council District 7 + Buckhead CID.  

I reordered it slightly.  Dog parks were at the end, but they are part of park spaces not the other categories.  The "framework" is (1) public spaces from small to large; (2) trails and paths and the pedestrian network [should be expanded, see "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning,"]; (3) cultural resources; (4) public art.

• Plazas
• Central Gathering Space
• Neighborhood Parks
• Community Greens
• Dog Parks
• Conservation Parks
• Greenways & Trails
• Historical & Cultural Resources
• Public Art

But while the plan is great on the spaces, ultimately they missed the need for a public recreation center.  There are some limited facilities in some residential districts. And a variety of for profit or nonprofit facilities like a pool, tennis, and fitness facilities. Probably most of the residents in apartment buildings stick to facilities in their buildings.  

But like what I suggested years ago in Downtown DC, public recreation centers should be included in mixed use districts.  Plus, for workers they'd have the added value of being able to provide shower and locker facilities for bicyclists.  

The Downtown YMCA in Indianapolis used to offer a dedicated bike support facility at City Market but it shut down ("City Market's Bike Hub Is Rolling Forward," Indianapolis Monthly).  But that kind of facility should be integrated into a downtown public recreational facility, serving multiple demographics and users.  

In Santa Monica, Bike Center Santa Monica is a bike shop that rents bikes and supports commuting (in a separate operation with secure bike parking, showers, and lockers, independent from government support other than likely cheap rent in a city parking structure), with a shop with roll up doors.  It's well located in a prominent location in a city parking structure, one block from the Downtown Santa Monica Metro Station and the Third Street Promenade pedestrian mall.

Dog park planning.  In planning for park, recreation and open spaces in urban districts, dog parks are one of the categories that should be included.  The Buckhead plan suggests two types, neighborhood ones but still with a fair amount of amenities, and larger ones serving multiple districts.

-- Dog runs 

---- Basic amenities including water fountain, waste stations. seating areas, fencing, shade| shelter, durable surfaces (typically not organic turf)

---- Experience:  Fulfills basic needs includingcanine to can in en interaction, socialization. canine exercise, waste disposal

-- Destination dog parks 

---- Full range of amenities including water fountain, waste stations, seating areas, segregated recreation areas, shade structures, water | beach access, agility courses | structures, trails | paths, larger exercise areas, restroom facilities, waste recycling, dedicated parking

---- Experience:  Provides a complete recreational experience including canine | canine interaction and socialization, canine/human recreation and interaction, larger size allows for increased flexibility and a greater variety of park programming, potential community event site.

It can be tough to pull off ("Going to the dogs").  In Salt Lake, the Park I'm on the board of is basically a 110 acre dog park already, and I don't want to fence off currently open space for dogs.  Especially because in a driving community like the Salt Lake Valley--people go to dog parks by car, and the traffic load and parking demand that would be induced far exceeds our current capacity.

But this small fenced in pet area at a rest stop on I-15 in Brigham City, Utah demonstrates you don't need a lot of space for it.  

Union Market has these kinds of spaces available.  Interestingly, I didn't take a contemporary photo, but some of the vintage produce sheds still exist on a still unused property on 6th Street NE at Penn Avenue.

This photo, by MrTinDC, from a market tour I led in 2008 shows what the shed space looks like.

The no longer in operation Bark Social in North Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland.

A mixed private-public option.  Another option along the lines of seeding amenities in new developments, in a dense building environment like a downtown or district like DC's new neighborhoods of Union Market, the Navy Yard, the Wharf, or the Parks at Walter Reed, maybe the way to go is to subsidize the private bar restaurant dog-friendly facilities that shut down recently,  because they aren't that profitable.  Add coffee/cafe functions, and don't require memberships.

Bark Social was one of those firms ("Meet your dog’s new favorite happy hour destination," Post).  This is in line with my long ago recommendation that community recreation plans should incorporate acknowledgement of and recommendations for for profit facilities too, to have a complete plan.  

Jud and Jane Wollard, both 58, of Silver Spring, sit with their dog, Murphy, on the left, as other dogs come around to be petted. Kate Bunker, 68, of Silver Spring, is on the right, and Havi Reguejo, 40, of North Bethesda, is in the center. People and dogs enjoy a Friday morning at Bark Social, a social club for dogs in North Bethesda. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

And like my suggestion that for profit bike shops could be subsidized by including them in community recreation centers, maybe that's true for dog accommodations too--Bark Social has a couple of locations still.  But maybe the urban sites were just too costly.  That's where subsidy may be a reasonable consideration. Although on equity grounds, people might complain, but if it's money from a self-tax, like a BID or Green Benefits District fee, it doesn't come at the expense of other government budget priorities.

=====

"Saving what is now Union Market" | Inside and Outside campaigns to bring about change.  Interestingly, I hadn't thought about it this way back then, but above I mention Paul Pascal and his key role in helping the market district forge a way better future than the one being proposed back then by legacy politicos and business interests.  What's there now is far better than what "New Towns" ever proposed.

I suppose I was the leader of the "outside campaign" bringing public attention to the issue, leading tours, taking journalists on tours who then wrote stories, talking to student groups.  Paul was the leader of the "inside campaign" dealing with the political and economic elites (think "Growth Machine" and "Urban Regime" theory) who could discard the New Town initiative and lay the path for the other.

Both were necessary.  But very different.  Too often those of us in outside campaigns think we're the primary difference makers.  Sometimes we are.  Sometimes we aren't.  But there is no question that both make a stronger whole.

This comes up with what I wrote about in fighting an inappropriate proposal for a hotel on the border of Sugar House Park in Salt Lake ("Learnings from a recent zoning issue I've been involved in").  There I led the inside campaign.  I understood my knowledge of the process came from all the various projects, initiatives, and plans I participated in back then, mostly in DC, some in Baltimore.  But I never was quite on the inside--sometimes, sort of--the way that Paul was in DC.

Common Good in Cities: People Who Cycle Are "Better" Than People Who Drive

"Orientation towards the common good in cities: The role of individual urban mobility behavior," Journal of Environmental Psychology (2023)

Abstract:  Orientation towards the common good is considered as a building block of  social cohesion and has been shown to benefit both social communities and their residents. Mobility behavior (e.g. cycling) is associated with many positive psychological variables, but little is known about its relationship with the orientation towards the common good. This study examined the relationships between mobility behavior and four facets of orientation towards the common good: political participation, social participation in organizations, neighborhood solidarity, and neighborly helpfulness. Using a longitudinal multilevel analysis, annual surveys between 2014 and 2019 of a representative sample of the German general population (GESIS PANEL, N = 410) were analyzed. Cycling rather than driving was positively associated with orientation towards the common good in all models. Cycling was the only variable that was a significant positive predictor for all four facets of orientation towards the common good after controlling for possibly confounding variables (homeownership, personal income, education, sex). This research demonstrated that mobility behavior is associated with the orientation towards the common good. These findings are significant for policy and planning because the benefits of cycling over driving are more profound and sustainable than previously thought.

=====

Makes sense to me that when you're riding (or walking) you're more connected to your community than when you're apart from it in a car.  

And this concept is expressed in an article about the Louisville Loop, a concept for a 100 mile trail loop around the core of Louisville, Kentucky, through various different land use contexts from Olmsted era parkways to the city's Riverwalk ("Louisville Loop architect of 30+ years drives effort to build more trails," Louisville Courier-Journal)

Despite the obstacles the Loop has faced in the last decade, Swintosky remains focused on the vision laid out by the Louisville Loop Master Plan, which called for the completion the 100-mile trail "that becomes an essential component for the growth and prosperity of the region."

"I mean, you could read the Louisville Loop Master Plan, but I can enunciate the words just from my own knowledge and experience," he said. "(The trails) are community-building, they provide good, healthy living opportunities. They give the community opportunity to experience parts of their own area that you don't get by just driving down a road."

This is an example of how parks, trails and open spaces contribute to community well being, engagement, and the presentation of third spaces.

In the entry on National Trails Day, I forgot to reference the term I prefer, "social bridge" and William H. Whyte's term, "triangulation" about how public spaces provide the opportunity for people who don't know each other to interact:

William H. Whyte and "triangulation."  Whyte, who had been editor of Fortune Magazine, became interested in cities and public space, and pioneered methods of urban observation, including filming people and how they used public space.  He wrote a couple of very important books on cities and activation, The Social Life of Small Urban Places and The City: Rediscovering the Center.

One of his concepts is what he called "triangulation," where people who didn't know each other talk to each other.  Triangulation is the process: 

in which a stimulus provides a social bond between people. Strangers are more likely to talk to one another in the presence of such a stimulus. The stimulus might be musicians, or street entertainers, or apiece of outdoor sculpture. Museum professionals will note the relation of these stimuli to landmark exhibits which have a similar effect.

Anne Lusk, in her dissertation on greenways, calls this a social bridge. and I like that term better, it sounds less "social sciency." She wrote about how to design greenways to promote social interaction: 

Except for a minimal number of elements, the environment does not facilitate interaction between strangers. While someone could hold open a door and a person passing through could say thank you, necessary ADA regulations are making many doors automatic. 

If social capital is to be increased and interaction between people who know one another and people who do not know one another improved, environments that might foster positive interaction should be built. At the destinations, social bridge elements could be incorporated in the built environment. These social bridge elements include four types:  

1) Assist, 2) Connect, 3) Observe, and 4) In Absentia. 

An assist social bridge is the built element that allows one person to assist another person. A connect social bridge is a form of William Whyte's triangulation where a third element is watched, such as people kayaking, and strangers talk as friends. An observe social bridge is the positive feeling when a kindness is witnessed and that kindness is facilitated by the element in the built environment. An in absentia social bridge could be experienced in the perception of the person who created or maintained the space for the enjoyment of the recipient. 

And we need to think about that more broadly, in terms of both design of spaces but also programming ("The layering effect: how the building blocks of an integrated public realm set the stage for community building").  And once again, David Barth's integrated public realm framework.

And that's exactly what I ended up doing a couple Sundays ago, crashing the Turkish holiday Kurban Bayramı (Eid al-Adha) held at Sugar House Park.  I made a new friend, and had great food and I learned a lot.

School closures and neighborhood effects

Given the decline in the number of school aged children, and outmigration from cities, school districts such as in Washington, DC, Chicago, and Philadelphia have been closing schools for decades.

The rational planning part of me is in favor because of the need to spend money efficiently, have enough students to be able to offer a wider range of programs, etc.

But the other side of my rational planning part also acknowledges that school closures have negative impact on neighborhoods, that elementary schools in particular are building blocks for neighborhoods (along with libraries).  

And that sports programs at the high school level can engender community pride, etc.

I pointed out this contradiction starting in 2011:

-- "One way in which community planning is completely backwards," 2011
-- "Missing the most important point about Clifton School closure in Fairfax County," 2011
-- "Rethinking community planning around maintaining neighborhood civic assets and anchors," 2011
-- "The bilingual Key Elementary School in Arlington County as another example of the "upsidedownness" of community planning," 2019
-- "National Community Planning Month: Schools as neighborhood anchors," 2022
-- "School closure and consolidation planning needs to focus on integration planning at the outset as a separate process," 2023

I suggested that cities ought to consider subsidizing continued school operation in some communities as a stabilization and revitalization measure.

Philadelphia is going through another round of school closure ("City Council members grill school district officials on plan to close 20 schools — and superintendent says he could have closed 40." Philadelphia Inquirer) and an op-ed about this "It’s not just about schools. It’s about neighborhoods," makes the same point as I did, but she describes better the effects of a school within a neighborhood beyond the curriculum.  From the article:

The conflict playing out in Philadelphia isn’t only about schools. It’s about the fact that the school district and City Council have different responsibilities for the same places, and the new facilities plan brings that conflict into sharp focus./p>

The facilities plan is doing exactly what it was designed to do. The trouble is that everything it was not designed to do.

A Philadelphia neighborhood school isn’t just one institution. It’s four, sharing an address. There’s the instructional platform: courses, teachers, schedules, the district’s domain. There’s the civic anchor: the building that signals to a neighborhood that its children count, and they belong. There’s the distribution node: where meals are served, where social workers operate, and where there is, most days, someone watching. And there’s the pathway to the future: where a counselor knows a family by name, where a student learns there’s a college or a trade or a life beyond the block.

... When that school building closes, all of those other things close with it. Some of those functions were formal educational programs. Others accumulated because families had nowhere else to go for them. The school became the place where paperwork was explained, problems were addressed and solved, and someone always knew which door to knock on next.

City Council doesn’t get to vote on the facilities plan, but it funds roughly 40% of the district’s $2 billion budget.

... What closes with a school building is not limited to instruction. Council’s budget is the instrument for the functions the facilities plan does not govern: housing investment, community infrastructure, colocated services, and neighborhood anchors that exist independent of school enrollment.

The conclusion to the article is succinct.

The district’s plan answers an educational question. What replaces the neighborhood functions housed in those buildings is a civic one.

That answer does not sit with the school district.

Recommendation.  School systems need to work more closely with city planning departments, to ensure decisions are made in a manner that promotes neighborhood stabilization and improvement.  If necessary, could funds be identified that could be provided to keep certain schools open, and to improve enrollments to make it more financially efficacious for doing so.

Last week was National Library Week

 I usually put together an omnibus piece about various items I've come across over the past year, from new libraries to interesting programs.

-- "National Library Week, 4/7 - 4/13," 2024.  Note that it is in the comments section where I try to include mentions/links to the stuff I include the next year.

-- "Neighborhood libraries as nodes in a neighborhood and city-wide network of cultural assets," 2019

I didn't get around to it this year.

The Trump Administration intends to shutter the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  It's sad that the way the Trump Administration, in another anti-education and learning move, around the time of NLW announced it wants to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and halted all its grants ("Federal museum and library grants abruptly terminated," USA Today).

IMLS was effectively shuttered in early April when nearly all employees were placed on administrative leave, and all work on approving federal grants for state, local and academic libraries and museums was immediately halted.

This reflects MAGA "thinking more generally."  See "In the Land of Self-Defeat, New York Times.

It's a joke that this is about budget savings, IMLS's budget is $304 million, much of which goes to grants to state-based organizations.

This is about destroying three different things, which I intend to write more about, (1) destruction of civil society, especially one that is focused on knowledge and critical thinking (S," New York Times); (2) federal government generally; and (3) education/higher education.

2.  Book banning still marches apace (:US public schools banned over 10K books during 2023-2024 academic year, report says," USA Today, "Rightwing groups across US push new bans to limit ‘obscene’ books in libraries," Guardian).  Book Riot reports that US-based right wing groups are taking book banning overseas ("Book Banning Attempts Rise in UK as US Groups Reach Overseas").

Also reinforcing Trump anti-education efforts has led to book banning at the US Naval Academy ("Book ban at military service academies draws flak from Congress,").

I realize that the Trump Administration is basically following the playbook of the hard right political parties in Hungary, Fidesz, currently, and the Law and Justice Party in Poland before they were turned out of office {"Enacting the “Illiberal Playbook” in Hungary and Poland," Perspective on Politics).

3.  Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch ("Young people won’t, or can’t, read a book. Now democracy is dying. Coincidence?") writes about a significant drop off in book reading overall, but especially amongst college aged youth.

A viral essay with an anodyne headline — “The Average College Student Today” — from a self-proclaimed professor at a U.S. regional public university, under the pseudonym Hilarius Bookbinder, has rocked online academia with its claim that the typical modern undergraduate student is functionally illiterate. They essentially argue that smartphone-addled young people — echoing their president — might read passages or ideas, but can’t finish an adult book from cover to cover.

“I’m not saying our students just prefer genre books or graphic novels or whatever,” Bookbinder, citing 30 years of classroom teaching experience, wrote. “No, our average graduate literally could not read a serious adult novel cover-to-cover and understand what they read. They just couldn’t do it. They don’t have the desire to try, the vocabulary to grasp what they read, and most certainly not the attention span to finish.”

I'll admit that with 30 years of the Internet including 10+ of smartphone, consumption of information moves to the article rather than the book.  My attention span has certainly diminished, and I don't necessarily read a book a week.... although journal articles should count for more than regular articles. 

Houston Light Rail fountains: Railroad Beautiful for the 21st Century

20ish years ago, I came across the term "railroad beautiful" which referred to the architecture (H. H. Richardson) and landscape of stations (Olmsted) for the Boston & Albany Railroad ("A Railroad Beautiful," Journal of Education, 1904).

It was a precursor to the City Beautiful movement, and is what I call "transportation infrastructure as civic architecture."  Which I argue should be a key planning element for transportation projects.  Out here in Utah there is a lot of this for freeways--bridges and walls--not so much for transit.

I have an old post:

-- "Transit, stations, and placemaking: stations as entrypoints into neighborhoods" (2013)

that discusses this more in terms of neighborhoods if you look at the title, but in fact treats the entire system as a design product 

-- "Branding's (NOT) all you need for transit" (2018).  

Some systems do this in a systematic way, most don't, focusing on transit as a conveyance.  But if you want people to ride transit, perhaps for many it needs to be more design forward.

-- "Design forward trains and streetcars: Haga-Utsunomiya Light Rail and Brightline" (2023)

I haven't been to Houston in decades, so I didn't know that the Houston Light Rail terminal station on Main Street called Main Street Square, has a water feature--a fountain--and plantings, marking a recapturing of the concept of railroad beautiful for the 21st Century.

GGW suggestion on making 90 bus line primary on its streets: bus on top, tunnel below?

While I haven't written for awhile, I have been thinking about things at a bigger scale, which will come out in some of the next entries.

As I get older, I become a little less doctrinaire, and given that in the US 92% of all trips are by car, I've resigned myself to having to accommodate them.  This is less the case in DC than SLC--which is the epitome of sprawl--but it's still an issue in DC.

Even though in DC on the major routes, bus riders make up a significant amount of the total people "throughput" on the street--e.g. on H Street NE, at least pre-covid, 40% of people throughput was by bus, via 300 bus trips, it's tough to corral automobiles, especially because most of the city, except the core is shaped by the automobility paradigm ("DC as a suburban agenda dominated city," 2013).

BeyondDC suggests in a GGW post, "One change to transform DC travel: Make the 90 bus truly awesome," that because the 90 bus line is the only major crosstown route, its uniqueness means that it should get priority on its streets.  

This is a problem because at many points the street is super narrow for an arterial

While it's unique as a crosstown route for buses, the same goes for the route in terms of motor vehicle traffic. 

And while I think the proposal is meritable, it's probably too controversial to ever get approved.

Not that my counter proposal is any easier....

In "Tunnelized road projects for DC and the Carmel Tunnel, Haifa, Israel example--tolls" (2011) and "DC and "city repair" of the urban grid," (2020) I suggest that a series of DC streets be "tunnelized and tolled" to separate commuter traffic from local traffic.  

It would facilitate faster travel for commuters--helping to maintain the relevance of Downtown as a regionally significant commercial district--it would also reduce the negative effect of commuter traffic on residents and neighborhoods.

Flickr photo by Elyse Horvath.

The 90s busline roadway could be brought into that proposed underground road network.  

It could get great urban design treatment on the surface where the bus would still run, because of frequent stops, while the tunnel would focus on satisfying longer trips.

With the tunnel, the surface street could become a kind of transit/sustainable mobility mall, at least in certain sections, using my Signature Streets model, the My Figueroa project in LA, etc..  

And you could run articulated buses to increase capacity.

Spitalerstraßße transit mall, Hamburg, Germany.  

Bi-articulated buses (3 sections) are allowed on the street

Image by BeyondDC.  50 foot road right of way with bus service in the middle of the street

Florida Avenue NE Streetscape Improvement (2nd Street NE to H Street NE)

National Library Week, 4/7 - 4/13

Normally it's at the end of the month, this year, the middle.  Personally I think it should be the entire month.

-- "Libraries are rooted in the community and here your story can grow," Wilmington News-Journal.  From the article:

Libraries and librarians play such a crucial role in the well-being of our communities, and the Delaware public libraries are no exception. We are not a disparate collection of books,: Today’s libraries function as vibrant community centers that contribute to the social, cultural, and educational fabric of our neighborhoods, enriching the lives of young and old. 

Libraries help our communities face the rising challenges of the modern world, such as isolation, disparity and misinformation. The services they provide and the programs they deliver are aimed at connection, compassion, truth, and equity because our mission is rooted in the needs of our community. 

Despite the misguided perception that libraries are unnecessary, evidence continues to support what those of us in the library community have known for a long time: libraries benefit us all.

The four biggest issues these days are:

1.  Campaigns all across the US, in conservative areas, to ban books. It's mostly in the schools, but also in public libraries ("Why Americans must unite against the organized effort to ban library books," Nashville Tennessean, "History of Book Bans in the U.S.," National Geographic, "The Fight for the American Public Library: Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back.," Bloomberg, "Public libraries are the latest front in culture war battle over books," Washington Post, "Book ban attempts spiked in 2023, new research shows," Politico), "Book bans in US public schools increase by 28% in six months, Pen report finds," Guardian).

The Utah State Legislature proposes a statewide banning policy.  If a book is banned by three school systems, all have to pull it ("Bill that requires statewide removal of school library books deemed pornographic by 3 districts close to passage," Salt Lake Deseret News).

And state library agencies in conservative states are dropping their membership in the American Library Association ("Florida joins conservative states severing ties with national library group," Politico).

There has been some defunding and or attempts of libraries in Michigan and Missouri ("Missouri libraries dodge GOP funding strike — for now," Kansas City Beacon). And probably elsewhere.

Toronto Public Library has a display of books increasingly banned in the US.  

The Brooklyn Public Library will provide a library card to anyone in the US, to evade censorship bans.

In response to book banning efforts, the director of the Hoboken New Jersey Library made the entire city a "book sanctuary" ("Haters attacked an inclusive public library. So its director made the whole city a book sanctuary," LGBTQ Nation).

Obviously, it affects authors ("For John Green, the Battle Over Access to Books Has Gotten Personal," New York Times).

2.  Funding.  Besides punitive funding cuts in support of book banning, libraries always have to worry about funding.

For example, New York City, which has just opened up a bunch of new library facilities ("A Love Letter to Libraries, Long Overdue," New York Times) proposed budget cuts that could lead to weekend closures ("NYC Budget Would Close Libraries On Weekends While Police Get Huge Bonuses," Vice).   Though later the proposal was rescinded.

Polarization doesn't help ("In the land of self-defeat" and "I Am Being Pushed Out of One of the Last Public Squares, the Library," New York Times).

3.  Libraries as community hubs.  Both book bans and funding cuts (it is proposed that the Huntington Beach Library system outsource, "Huntington Beach considering privatizing library operations," Orange County Register) are tragic considering how libraries (and parks) are the primary civic assets in a community that are public facing (schools too, but only for those people who have families), and key "social infrastructure" elements ("Neighborhood libraries as nodes in a neighborhood and city-wide network of cultural assets").

For example, "Residents offered free health checks in libraries," BBC and "Creative library project underway in Wilmington to spur community and economic development," Wilmington News-Journal.

Library staff in SF hold a press conference and protest about understaffing.  Photo: Martin do Nascimento, KQED.

4.  Libraries as community hubs also can be a drawback.  Since they are really the only public -civic asset that is open for set hours, has staff, and restrooms, libraries can be inundated with dealing with civic problems like homelessness, violence ("'Not What I Signed Up For': SF Librarians Demand More Security Guards," KQED/PBS), drug use, and mental health ("Texas libraries work to bridge state’s mental health services gap," Texas Tribune) and mental illness.

Other developments.

1.  Nonprofit opens free bookstore.  Why not put such facilities in libraries ("Nonprofit Reading Ready Pittsburgh opens free bookstore in Homestead ," WESA/NPR).

2.  Daycare at the Park City, Utah Library.  Probably in rented space ("PC Tots invites all to ribbon cutting at Park City Library," Park Record).  The Drumbrae Library in Scotland includes a day care facility ("Work begins on Drumbrae's new library, day care centre and youth cafe," Guardian, 2011).

Libros Book Club.  Photo: Nate Martinez, Express-News.

3.  Independent readers lounge in San Antonio.  Indicates demand for longer hours, or special ways to meet the needs of other audiences, not unlike how university libraries stay open late ("Late-night readers lounge opens in San Antonio. Here's what we know," San Antonio Express-News).  Note that the central library in Montreal stays open til 10pm.

Also see "24-7 Library Spaces Drive Commuter Student Success," Inside Higher Education.

4.  World Book Day, March 7th.  I had no idea there is a World Book Day.  Studies in the UK find that few children read for pleasure ("World Book Day finds children are put off reading for pleasure: Annual event to encourage young readers has revealed research finding that significant numbers feel discouraged from following their own tastes," and "Almost a million children in the UK do not own a book," Guardian).

5.  Lots of libraries are under threat of closure in the UK because of the defunding of local government by the national Conservative government ("Battle to save Britain's libraries as budget cuts, closures and austerity leaves future uncertain," Big Issue, "Review finds libraries in England suffer ‘lack of recognition’ from government," Guardian).

I was reading an article about Reagan, transit and cities, and it was the first article that put the funding cuts under the title of "austerity" which has been the British Conservative Government's policy since 2010 of defunding local government and local services ("How austerity (and ideology) broke Britain," Guardian).

6.  Underfunding school libraries.  There was an article in the Post about Oxon Hill, Maryland ("In a Maryland school library, empty shelves are about to get emptier") although a letter to the editor ("A community can build Oxon Hill Elementary's library") suggested parents organize themselves.  That happened a number of years ago in DC ("The fight for school libraries in D.C.," Washington Examiner).  Also see "Cressida Cowell renews call for £100m investment in primary school libraries," Guardian and "D.C. Council Bill Seeks to Close Gap in Librarians and Literacy," City Paper.

In a political move the conservative state government in Texas took over the Houston Public Schools, and the hard ass new superintendent got rid of the libraries and remade them into discipline centers.

7.  US Literacy Crisis ("30 million adults are unable to read a simple story to their children, according to the National Literacy Institute," WEAR TV)).  From the article:

Addressing the U.S. literacy crisis: Study shows children, adults lack reading skills 30 million adults are unable to read a simple story to their children, according to the National Literacy Institute. This is a generational issue that can lead to other problems like high unemployment rates and even poor health. 

This is a generational issue that can lead to other problems like high unemployment rates and even poor health. In fact, statistics show one in three children entering kindergarten lack the basic skills they need to learn to read. And two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders do not read at grade level. 

"For a child who is struggling to read, to have an adult sit with them one-on-one and not just listen to them and make some corrections as they're reading but mainly to be their cheerleader while they're practicing -- that's huge," Pierce said. But learning how to read is only half the battle. Children have to continue to practice reading as they grow.

8.  Literary programs.  The LA Library system received a publishing outfit as a donation and will continue to publish books ("The L.A. Public Library is getting into book publishing. Why it makes total sense," Los Angeles Times) and Hugo House, a nonprofit in Seattle focused on literary arts is in financial distress ("Seattle’s Hugo House faces uncertain future," Seattle Times).

9.  Private library: Prelinger Library devoted to ephemera ("This San Francisco Library Collects Print Materials You Were Never Meant to See," KQED/PBS).  I figure that's where most of my ephemera will be donated too when I die, plus either Washingtonia Library or the Historical Sociey in DC and the Utah Historical Society.

10.  Oodi Library, the central library in Helsinki.  I've been meaning to write about this in a separate entry.  The ground floor is a cultural center.  At the cost of fewer books.

11.  Co-location.  I mentioned how the main library in Pocatello now has a pedestrianized street in front of it, and a park, including a playground, across the street.  The park has an amphitheater and is used for the Saturday Farmers Market.  

The Nottingham UK library has added a playground to its front "Children's play area opens outside Nottingham Central Library," BBC).

I've mentioned how the South Park Library in Seattle captured the street in front of it.

12.  The Boston Public Library has started a nutrition program headed by a chef, headquartered in the Roxbury branch ("'Boston Public Library’s new chef to lead cooking program in Roxbury'," CBS News).

Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Defining Levels of Service for individual parks

 Gaps in park master planning frameworks

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Levels of Service"

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Two | Utilizing Academic Research as Guidance"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning for Seasonality and Activation"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Seven | Park Architectural (and Landscape Design) History" 
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Civic Engagement"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Nine | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework" 

But while I have written a bunch about parks and transportational access, I didn't think to include that as another topic in the series.  The challenge is to ensure that as many parks as possible are accessible by transit.  This, and other forms of accessibility, should be covered in a parks master plan.

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Ten | Park transportational access" (2025)

While covid kept me somewhat quiescent in terms of civic involvement in Salt Lake after first moving here, eventually I ended up getting involved in parks (and other development matters).  I am on the board of Sugar House Park, which is owned by both the city and county, so it has some interesting intergovernmental issues. 

Working on revitalization in DC, where the National Park Service runs many of the "local" parks, general federal-local government issues, and being on the board of Eastern Market public market for 13 years definitely prepared me for the issues present here.  

-- "Revisiting Trust for Public Land's Park Score® methodology" (2017)
-- "Federal shutdown as another example of why local jurisdictions should have more robust contingency and master planning processes" (2013)
-- "Testimony: Agency Performance Oversight, DC Department of Parks and Recreation" (2012) 

One problem with the board is that the city and county haven't invested in board development, and for the most part over the years, the board has taken a back seat to the executive branch members of the board--there are seven "lay members" and one each from city and county parks.

My background in planning, including parks planning, gives me/the board a knowledge base they didn't have access to before.  

-- "Sounds familiar to me: recommendations from a guy who visited every park in Boston" (2017): 

There is tension between being a more active or a more passive board.  Lack of investment in board development, and real complications in planning and capital budgeting between city and county have led to some problems.

Fortunately there are a couple of other "new members" who are super go getters too.  We have so much to do.  Without them though, I'd just be an old guy yelling into the wind.  But, like my brief planning job in Baltimore County proved I could do great work and work within a system--despite the lack of a degree in planning, I am helping to transform parks practice in Salt Lake City.

One thing that's interesting given how much I advocated for parks in DC and all the parks master plans I've read over the years, is identifying a number of gaps in the master plan frameworks for parks, more generally.  A bunch of items I just didn't think about until I had to.

This seven-part series covers the gaps I've identified so far.

Level of service as a public administration term

The term Level of Service is typically thought of as a transportation term referring to vehicle throughput, functioning of intersections, etc.  

It turns out that there is an International Standard (ISO 55000) for asset management, which defines levels of service as: 

…parameters, or combination of parameters, which reflect social, political, environmental and economic outcomes that the organization delivers.  These parameters might include metrics such as: 

• Safety 
• Customer expectations and satisfaction 
• Quality 
• Quantity 
• Capacity 
• Reliability 
• Responsiveness 
• Environmental acceptability 
• Availability 
• Cost

Levels of Service defined at the scale of a park system. LOS is a term used in park planning at the scale of the system ("Standards for Outdoor Recreational Areas," American Planning Association) and it's used to measure the amount of space and facilities available to residents at a gross-grained scale. 

Special levels of service demands for business districts and parks. LOS as a term isn't used that often at the micro scale in discussions about "parks conservancies" and business improvement districts, even though providing a LOS higher than a city can typically afford is exactly why such organizations have been created--and they collect special monies to pay for it.  

For either a BID or a conservancy extra services are likely to include security, sanitation, capital improvements and marketing and for BIDs, economic development activities.  

Conservancies and BIDs as special service districts. NYC is well known for its park conservancies, starting with Central Park.  

-- Public spaces/private money: The Triumphs and Pitfalls of Urban Park Conservancies, Trust for Public Land
-- "Creating a Park Conservancy that Fits," NRPA

Discussions for creating a conservancy for Central Park started in the 1970s and came to fruition in the early 1980s.  The city agreed to provide a certain level of personnel and budget, with transfer of active management of the park to the third party nonprofit, which raised additional monies for staff, maintenance and improvements.

New York City has since developed many such groups for parks and and business districts.  Brooklyn's Prospect Park Alliance was created in 1987 and the Madison Square Park Conservancy in 2003.

The Bryant Park Conservancy was created in 1980 and its revitalization is a well known story in planning circles ("Inside the transformation of Bryant Park," New York Daily News, "Splendor in the Grass," New York Times, Bryant Park case study, "Life of Bryant: Bryant Park’s Transformation Into the Center of Midtown" "Lessons from NYC’s Bryant Park must guide James Weldon Johnson Park’s redesign" Jaxson, "A Place Is Better Than a Plan: Revitalizing urban areas is best done through small improvements, not grand designs,:" City Journal, "Bryant Park, NY: Publicly Owned, Privately Managed, and Financially Self-Supporting" Project for Public Spaces)  and is a good model for other communities--although New York City has an advantage because of its great wealth-- because the park is smaller, only 10 acres,  compared to large scale parks like Central Park or Prospect Park.

Criticism of conservancies and BIDs as privatization of the public space and civic commons.  Note that these kinds of initiatives can be controversial both locally and in the academic literature.  These are legitimate criticisms.  At the same time if you want better places, it costs money and this method may be the only way a community can provide the LOS in terms of management, operations, and capital improvements it wants for its key/anchor/signature civic assets.

-- "Stewarding the City as Commons: Parks Conservancies and Community Land Trusts Community Land Trusts " City University of New York Law Review
-- Private Funding of Public Parks Assessing the Role of Philanthropy , Resources for the Future
-- "Our Parks Are Not for Sale: From the Gold Coast of New York to the Venice Biennale," Dissent
--" Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Challenges in Managing Philanthropic Support for Public Services," Public Administration Review
-- "Park (in)Equity," Deconstructing the High Line: Post Industrial Urbanism and the Rise of the Elevated Park

Sugar House Park is a conservancy.  Technically.  But it hasn't created the innfrastructure and capacity to take advantage of this status.  Plus, Salt Lake City, unlike NYC, isn't full of wealth, although there are plenty of philanthropic opportunities that the park can seek out.  

To my way of thinking, from the standpoint of Social Psychology of Organizations, the group is on the cusp of moving from a more ad hoc structure to one that is more organized and active.  (A move from a stage one organization to stage two.)

Uncleared sidewalks from 1300 East to Sugar House Park.

Levels of Service at the scale of an individual park is an issue with Sugar House Park. 

It's an urban park, a regional park serving all of the County, but it's also heavily used by city as well as neighborhood residents.  The neighborhood is pretty densely populated, leading to even higher use.

But the County, which is contracted to maintain the park, and provides key administrative and planning support, mostly doesn't manage parks in center cities, with all the issues that such park locations may have-- security, homelessness (Dealing With Crime and Disorder in Urban Parks, ASU POP Center) and other issues like snow clearance to maintain winter access that are not typical of suburban parks.

Finding the money to provide the necessary level of "extra service" is difficult because we have to get agreement from both the city and the county, and as park systems, because Sugar House Park is simultaneously part of both, and yet separate, not part of either system, this can be a long process.

At the scale of parks master planning, it's important to come up with a LOS typology for individual parks/parks at the micro scale, and provide the desired LOS as needed.

And that's what I'm in the process of trying to do with Sugar House Park.  

"Why is our meager budget earned from pavilion rentals paying for security?" or "why can't the City Public Utilities agency help pay for dredging the pond since it is part of their watershed?" or "why don't we have better snow clearance?" are the kinds of questions that I've been asking and should lead to significant changes over time.

Developing a LOS dashboard.  I don't manage the park.  The County is developing a dashboard for the park system and individual parks, focused on state of good repair.  To address the issue of differentiated level of service requirements, we need a checklist/chart/dashboard.  That's the best way to justify the recommendations, decisions and choices you make, based on demand for quantity and quality of particular services.  It would include items such as:

• Security services
• Restroom services
• Maintenance standards/State of Good Repair
• Ornamental plantings
• Lighting (morning, night, winter)
• Types of street furniture
• The array of programming offered
• The type and operation of facilities
• Special facilities like bike share stations
• Snow clearance practice
• Hours of operation

-- SF Park Evaluation Standards, 2022-

-- Safe and Managed Public Spaces Operations Dashboard, Boulder

-- Safe and Managed Public Spaces Action Plan 2023, Boulder