Automated speed camera data from Toronto shows the value of this traffic speed enforcement mechanism

Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, uses provincial powers a lot to preempt local government action, especially in Toronto.  One example is his elimination of the use of automatic speed cameras over "freedom etc." plus other measures can do just as well, such as oversize speed limit signs.

Guess what?  Tickets work.  Since the elimination of cameras, speeding has increased 235% in the Parkdale neighborhood, based on data collection associated with the speed limit counter signs, which collect data, they aren't limited to just saying "slow down" ("We all have one thing to say about Doug Ford’s ban on automated speed cameras: We told you so," Toronto Star).  From the article:

That’s based on data reported from one of the city’s digital “Watch your Speed” signs. You’ve seen them around. They’re typically posted near schools. They flash with your car’s speed as you pass by, hopefully serving as a visual reminder, when necessary, that you should slow the heck down. They also, it turns out, keep a permanent record of speeds.

These signs can be set up to collect data in both directions.  Yellow signs are typically placed near schools.  White signs elsewhere.  Photo: TrafficLogix.

Using the same basic methodology as Safe Parkside, I looked at data from more than 800 sites with these digital signs. In October 2025, the last full month before Ford’s ban on speed cameras took effect, the digital signs collectively recorded 626,137 vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit by at least 20 km/h. In April, with no more fear of speed cameras, the number nearly doubled, to more than one million.

Of 837 sites I looked at with data from both before and after the speed camera ban, the number of drivers doing 20 clicks over the limit increased at 476 of them. (Before the program was put on ice, the city had 150 speed cameras that rotated through locations like these.)

Tickets are "controversial."  They cost money so people don't like them, without acknowledging that if they followed the laws they wouldn't be ticketed.  

In the Douglas Shoup parking universe, parking tickets are a source of revenue for commercial district public space improvements.  But to me there is a fine line between encouraging and discouraging people to visit traditional commercial districts.  You have to balance parking concerns, bad behavior of parking--which is why Shoup encouraged low or no cost parking in garages, and high prices for street parking--and encouraging return passenger.

The recent director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, Richard Lazar, made the point that rather than focusing on the revenue generating capacity of tickets, he prefers to think of them as "education devices" that people use to change their behavior ("Rich Lazer Would Like You to Love the PPA. No, Seriously.," Philadelphia Magazine).

Lazer recognizes that increased enforcement isn’t viewed positively across much of the city. He doesn’t look at enforcement as a revenue generator — a claim you can hear muttered at expired meters across Philadelphia — but rather as a behavioral change. If you’re blocking a crosswalk or parking on a sidewalk or jamming up a bike lane, yes, you’ll have to pay a fine. And maybe next time, you won’t do it (or at least will think twice about doing it).

“It’s about curb management and enforcing quality-of-life issues so they don’t happen anymore,” Lazer says. “And maybe that’s putting yourself out of business, because you want people to follow the rules. But at the end of the day, we don’t want to be looked at as somebody who just wants to generate revenue, because that’s not the mission. Our operation is not out to just crush people.”

I imagine he believes that parking scofflaws, who don't care about tickets--a problem in DC with out of state license plate users of the streets because it's hard to penalize them, that they should get their cars impounded, as another form of education.

Anyway, the Toronto findings are a sad but good example of real life experimentation to prove or disprove various approaches to public policy, in this case traffic enforcement.

An illustration of house transmogrification that is a neighborhood character deadener

 

Decades ago I was at one of my first conferences, and a speaker made the point that the primary reason that people oppose development is because the new is generally worse than the old.  And that in past eras, when something old was replaced, it was more likely to be better.

After 25 years of experience, I'd say that the speaker is right in terms of attitudes but wrong in practice, because most people oppose everything regardless of design and building material quality.

But there is no question that design and building material quality "stick out" positively and will last decades, contributing positively to the "architecture of the ensemble."

The building facade on the left diminishes the ensemble.

2.  While people "oppose everything" they always advocate "for parks." That's because they want placid spaces.  The default after "no development" is "park/greenspace", not development.

But what if we open pickleball courts instead ("Shattered Nerves, Sleepless Nights: Pickleball Noise Is Driving Everyone Nuts," New York Times).

Given various experiences in DC, I always recommend against tearing down a development, and while the process to build something new goes forward, creating a "temporary use of a park." By the time the project is ready to get its approvals and permits, any agreement about temporary use goes out the window.  The park created an advocacy group by existing, and they will fight the next phase of the project ("Park View Residents Continue To Oppose Redevelopment at Bruce Monroe Park," Washington City Paper).

This happened with the Capital Crescent Trail and the Purple Line light rail project in Suburban Montgomery County.  The railroad there was used to shuttle coal to a power plant in Georgetown DC.  That facility closed in 1987.  The County stepped in and bought the line, "banking it for future transit" while putting in a multi use path, the CCT, in the interim.

Note the shirt.

Caption: President of the Capital Crescent Trail Ajay Bhatt speaks during a final walk at the Georgetown Branch trail, which will close due to construction of the Purple Line. Mike Murillo/WTOP.

Well in the mid 2010s, people fought the Purple Line, ostensibly because of the Trail but really because they didn't want to give up what had become extended backyards ("Friends of Capital Crescent Trail Take Purple Line Fight to U.S. Transportation Secretary," Bethesda Magazine, "Purple Line opponents hope for last-minute stop to Montgomery Co. trail closure," WTOP Radio).  

The service will open in 2027, so 40 years after the concept was first developed. Construction and other delays created by Republican Governor Larry Hogan delayed the project by 5.5 years ("The last bit of track, finally, is laid for the Purple Line," Washington Post).

FWIW, a memo I wrote about creating an "irresistible biking environment for DC" was distributed to the Maryland State Highway planning staff when I was a bike planner in Baltimore County, during the beginnings of planning for the Purple Line.  It influenced their making a commitment to have a trail parallel the entire line.

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.

October is National Community Planning Month | Thirteen characteristics of walkable neighborhoods | Characteristics of great places

The CNU Public Square article, "Thirteen characteristics of walkable neighborhoods," reminds me that this month is National Community Planning Month, which I have been remiss in writing about.  

Years ago, the American Planning Association used NCPM as a way to bring attention to best practice urban design and public spaces neighborhoods and cities.  They stopped doing that awhile ago.  I think that was a mistake because you can never have too many examples of what's good in the midst of a planning paradigm that produces a lot more bad.

 I wrote some pieces, with the intent to write more.  

-- "National Community Planning Month: Schools as neighborhood anchors," 2022
-- "Community Planning Month and Transportation," 2022
-- "Planning books to read for National Community Planning Month," 2020
-- "October as National Community Planning Month (and "defund the police")," 2020
-- "Community planning, capitalism, and housing/real estate development," 2020

Ridge Avenue in Roxborough, Philadelphia.  One side is historic small commercial buildings.  On the other side is a new, modern design, apartment building with ground floor retail.

Given the previous entry, "BTMFBA + programs to lease the properties to local businesses | Philadelphia," definitely an article on best practice in commercial district revitalization is in order.  I do have a series:

-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 1 | The first six," (2020)
-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 2 |  A neighborhood identity and marketing toolkit (kit of parts)," (2020)
-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 3 | The overarching approach: destination development/branding and identity, layering and daypart planning," (2020)
-- "Basic planning building blocks for "community" revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 4 | Place evaluation tools," (2020)

Boise has a great program to support neighborhood identity development and community building.

This series is on neighborhood revitalization:

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)," 2020
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2" 2020
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)" 2020
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)" 2020
-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," 2021

But frankly, the blog is full of thousands of entries that are related to best practice in community planning.

The CNU article about walkability is more about technical conditions, less so about people:

1. The neighborhood is the increment of planning. A single freestanding neighborhood is a village. 

I make this point in the entry, "National Community Planning Month: Schools as neighborhood anchors," which builds on writing back to 2011, but urban planning isn't really set up that way.

2. The neighborhood is limited in size to a 5-minute walk (0.25 miles, 400 meters) from edge to center, where the needs of daily life are available. 

From the standpoint of how retail is organized, this isn't practical.  More like a mile, probably more.

3. Neighborhood streets are in an interconnected network, allowing multiple routes to destinations. 

This is a basic precept from Jane Jacobs Death and Life of the Great American City (1961).

4. Neighborhood streets are spatially defined by buildings. Neighborhoods are nested together to make a town or city.  

Neal Street NE, DC.  

5. Neighborhood buildings are diverse in function but compatible in terms of size and configuration on the lot. 

I often quote Stephen Semes' point on neighborhood buildings comprising an "architecture of the ensemble."  New modern buildings often contrast terribly in terms of the ensemble.

6. The civic buildings of a neighborhood are located in important areas, for example, attached to squares. 

This one is tough.  The civic buildings and structures of a community tend to be a library, elementary school, maybe a transit station.  Schools aren't centrally located in this way.  

Mt. Pleasant DC's plaza is focused around an old streetcar turnaround.  The nearest library is a few blocks away, same with schools.  Although I do think when possible neighborhood libraries should be sited in this way.  Idea Store branch libraries in the Tower Hamlets borough of London are sited like this.

I will say that the Salt Lake City and County libraries don't do this very well, and often the building facade isn't permeable and doesn't connect to the street.

A plaza function may be provided rather than as a primary space, adjacent to a library or transit station.  

I do think if there are neighborhood centers, this kind of space needs to be built in.

7. Neighborhood open space is defined rather than amorphous. 

Parks, pocket parks, plazas, etc.

8. Everyone living in a neighborhood has independence of movement, since activities of daily life are within walking distance.

Ideally yes.  As we get old, it's harder to walk.  I have a heart condition and I walked 2+ miles today after a serious workout yesterday, and it was very hard.  Plus, I didn't have to walk back, I got picked up (a grocery store trip).

9. Reduced auto trips means less traffic and lower costs. 

10. Human-scale streets and squares provide opportunity for social interaction. 

11. Transit is made feasible by providing sufficient density near transit stops. 

12. There is a full range of housing types and workplaces, allowing age and economic integration.  

13. Civic buildings and spaces encourage democratic initiatives

Other lists of characteristics of great places to live or visit

Dan Burden has his own list, "How Can I Find and Help Build a Walkable Community?":

1. Intact Town Centers
2. Residential densities, mixed income, mixed use
3. Public Space
4. Universal Design
5. Key Streets are Speed Controlled
6. Streets, Trails are well linked
7. Design is properly scaled
8. Town is designed for people
9. Town is thinking small
10. In Walkable communities there are many people walking
11. The Town and Neighborhoods have a vision
12. Decision Makers are Visionary, Communicative, and Forward Thinking

Astoria.

Kyle Ezell's Get Urban: The complete guide to Urban Living is out of print, but the book makes a great point that you can find good urbanism in towns that aren't necessarily the largest US cities like NYC or Boston, that most places, Omaha or Tulsa, college towns, secondary cities in metropolitan area--like Royal Oak and Birmingham in Oakland County, or the Grosse Pointes in Wayne County, abutting Detroit--have some areas of great urbanism.  

We were recently in Astoria, Oregon, but didn't get to spend much time there due to a crotchety MIL, and the Downtown at its Sunday Farmer's Market, was hopping.

"The 20 Ingredients of an Outstanding Destination" by Roger Brooks International:

1. They begin with a plan.
2. They defined a strong brand and retail focus.
3. They orchestrated recruitment of “critical mass” or “clustering.”
4. They each have anchor tenants.
5. Lease agreements included defined operating hours and days.
6. People living and/or staying downtown.
7. Pioneers with patient money were convinced to invest.
8. They started with just one or two blocks - “demonstration project.”
9. Solving the parking dilemma.
10. Public washrooms.
11. Development of gathering places.
12. Creation of good first impressions: Community Gateways.
13. Design, fabrication & installation of a wayfinding system.
14. A good first impression: downtown or district gateways.
15. 20/20 signage: retail signage rules & regulations.
16. Sidewalk cafes and intimate surroundings.
17. They invested heavily in retai beautification.
18. They provide activities and entertainment: bring downtown to life!
19. They gave downtown districts a name.
20. The marketing is experiential: focus on activities, not buildings.

The Project for Public Spaces Place Game and How to Turn a Place Around workshop but focused on the overall place.

My own "Revisiting factors influencing housing purchase," which lists access to amenities as a factor in deciding where to purchase a house.

A point about pedestrianizing streets: Boulder; Alexandria, Virginia, Cleveland Park, DC

This post is spurred by Alexandria, Virginia expanding the pedestrianization of King Street from the 100 block to the 200 block.

======

When I first got involved in urban revitalization, I learned more about pedestrianized streets.  I already knew some, because I had visited Kalamazoo, Michigan, home to the first pedestrianized downtown street, created in 1959 ("Kalamazoo Mall, nation's first pedestrian mall, opened 60 years ago today," Kalamazoo Gazette).  It still exists, but now provides for car access, not just on the cross streets.

Such pedestrian malls were created as a way to compete with suburban malls, which had taken a lot of the retail out of the city.  Although in the 1950s and 1960s downtown department stores still reigned, although many firms started suburbanizing along with their customers, adding branches in the suburbs.

Usually, a pedestrian mall wasn't/isn't enough to attract people downtown on its own because most people are satisfied by the retail options they have closer to home, so the spaces seemed pretty empty.  And because they were empty, it provided an opportunity for the development of disorder. 

When I moved to DC, there was a pedestrian mall on G Street in front of the Martin Luther King Library.  I don't remember when it was removed.

Some still exist.  One variant is transit malls, pedestrian, but with transit, such as in Portland, Minneapolis, and Denver.  But my experience is that filled with hulking, usually noisy buses, those spaces aren't particularly congenial.  Portland's was very urban renewal architecture, and recently has been renewed with more current urban design and street furniture.  

Many have been redesigned ("Revised Nicollet Mall redesign is unveiled," 2014, "Plentiful ideas to fix Nicollet Mall show it has a bright future," Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

The most successful pedestrian malls are in Boulder, Burlington, Vermont ("History of Church Street Marketplace," Burlington Free Press), Madison, Wisconsin ("Madison Wisconsin should be rethinking its pedestrian "district""), and Charlottesville, Virginia.  

All are college towns so they have a lot of students without cars, making it a natural draw for pedestrian activity.

Plenty of other places have them, more than I know, including Cumberland, Maryland ("I didn't know Cumberland Maryland "had" a pedestrian mall"), Winchester, Virginia (it has a college, but isn't that big and isn't that close to downtown), and the Pacific Oceanside tourist destination of Santa Monica, California.

And some places are adding them, like Newark Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey, which is a small, but very dense, highly urban community across the river from Manhattan ("Pedestrianization of Newark Avenue in Jersey City").

Pedestrians walk past vacant retail storefronts for lease along the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica on March 20, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

Even the successful ones tend to peter out at the ends, with more vacancies there.  

Santa Monica's mall has been devastated by the closure of anchoring department stores, first Sears, then Nordstrom ("Third Street 3.0 in Santa Monica," Los Angeles Business Journal, "Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade is a retail relic. Can it be saved?," Los Angeles Times).

Programming is essential.  The thing I learned from Boulder is how important it is to heavily program and manage the space, which I wrote about in 2005 ("Now I know why Boulder's Pearl Street Mall is the exception that proves the rule about the failures of pedestrian malls").  Plants aren't enough.

Modern proposals for pedestrian malls.  With the revival of cities, many people have suggested pedestrian malls for their communities, not understanding whether or not they have good preconditions for success.  

I had been skeptical in the past about proposals for 18th Street in Adams Morgan (because of the topography there it's the only major arterial into the district going east-west, and is a major bus route) and 17th Street NW.

Pedestrian districts.  Europe has dozens if not hundreds of pedestrian districts ("No Cars Allowed: The 10 Best Pedestrian Streets Around the World," Axios).  But there are plenty elsewhere including Australia, China, Japan and even in Montreal, which has a mix of pedestrian districts like Old City and around McGill University and Summer only streets like Saint Catherine ("Walk Montréal's car-free streets all summer long!," "Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest: A renewed pedestrian experience," City of Montreal, "Montreal walks back pedestrian-only plans for sections of Ste-Catherine Street West," CBC-TV, "Beset by troubles, Ste-Catherine St. in Montreal’s Village will become a year-round pedestrian zone," Montreal Gazette).

A one-kilometre stretch of Ste-Catherine Street East will be redeveloped to become a pedestrian street year-round, with added greenery, amenities and an illuminated canopy. (Ben Shingler/CBC)

Photograph: Eva Blue.

Ironically, the street considered to be the first in Europe,Strøget in Copenhagen, came after Kalamazoo.

Since Copenhagen’s Strøget area eliminated cars in 1962, its popularity has influenced other global cities to implement the same type of pedestrianized areas. Photo by Kirk Fisher/Shutterstock

Such districts aren't a linear mall, but multiblock districts, often emanating from train stations, with retail and entertainment, and sometimes housing.

Capturing roadways to add pedestrianized space.  In the US, New York City, under transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, was a pioneer in pedestrianizing former roadways, starting with Broadway around Times Square in Manhattan ("Times Square's transformation into a pedestrian-friendly space captured in photos," CurbedNY, 

Start with a block.  I think it was getting exposed to pedestrian districts that I came to realize that while it is overwhelming to think of pedestrianizing many blocks in places that can't support it, why not start with one block, to pedestrianize places where it can be successful.

-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces"," 2020
-- "From more space to socially distance to a systematic program for pedestrian districts (Park City (Utah) Main Street Car Free on Sundays)," 2020
-- "Why doesn't every big city in North America have its own Las Ramblas?," 2020
-- "Diversity Plaza, Queens, a pedestrian exclusive block," 2020
-- "Planning urban design improvements at the neighborhood scale: Dupont Circle, DC," 2019

and build out as it becomes more successful.  Alexandria, Virginia's waterfront is a perfect example.  King Street emanates from it, but the street was always open to cars.  

With a process that started in 2020 ("Alexandria Virginia looks to pedestrianize the foot of King Street abutting the waterfront (public meeting tomorrow)," Lower King Street Pedestrianization Project), they tested making pedestrian the foot block of the street.  

Now they are extending it by one more block, after piloting it since last fall ("Another section of Old Town Alexandria is now car free," WTOP-AM, "New expansion to the King Street Pedestrian Zone opens today in Old Town," ALXNow).  From the article:

According to a city survey of people who live in the area, 87% of locals approve of the car-free zone, and 12 of 16 businesses most directly affected are also in favor. A city council report on traffic impacts also concluded that “dedicating more space for people walking, relative to vehicles along these three blocks of King Street, is an equitable allocation of public right-of-way.”

That could work for 17th Street NW in DC, maybe just on weekends as a start, even as it wouldn't work in most areas of the city.

-- "More about making 17th Street between P and R a pedestrian space on weekends," 2019
-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning," 2021

A variant is Cleveland Park in Washington, DC.  It's a less ambitious example, but just as important to the neighborhood's residents and a more graspable and comparable example for most cities as they lack NYC's density and pedestrian traffic.

Its main retail block on Connecticut Avenue was split with sidewalk, roadway, parking, and more sidewalk, with parking on the curb lane.

After years of advocacy, in the face of some opposition by retailers, the city agreed to fill in the parking lane with an extended sidewalk.

Silver Spring, Maryland has a pedestrian block, which has great potential for expansion ("Making "Downtown Silver Spring" a true open air shopping district by adding department stores").  Perhaps many places are equally fecund.  And you don't have to go to Europe to see the potential.

Diversity Plaza in Queens ("Diversity Plaza, Queens, a pedestrian exclusive block") is another example of pedestrianizing a block.

Sugar House, Salt Lake City.  Like Cleveland Park, a large section of street and parking offset from the main street of 2100 South was converted into Monument Plaza in 2015 ("Monument Plaza enlivens Sugar House after years in the making," Salt Lake Tribune).  

The Monument is art deco, dedicated to the area's history of growing sugar beets.  A water feature calls attention to the area's history of having canals to bring in water and support commerce.

It looks like it's been there for years, but all in all is pretty recent.  It's used for restaurant patios, public space, and events.

Mare Street/Narrow Way in Hackney, London.  London has multiple pedestrian districts and pedestrian streets.  Mare Street was pedestrianized in 2016 but it looks like it's been there for a few decades ("Going Dutch in Hackney Central," Hackney Cyclist).  It emanates from Hackney Central Overground rail transit station and is part of the borough's "downtown."

Still, there can be conflicts between pedestrians and micromobility modes like bicycles ("Pedestrians urge cyclists to be more cautious down Hackney’s Narrow Way," Hackney Gazette).

Residential examples: Milwaukie Avenue in Minneapolis.  Created in the 1970's, it's an example of a residential street converted to a pedestrian block, as part of a neighborhood historic district ("Milwaukee Avenue a model for change," "1970s Mpls. activists saved Milwaukee Avenue's modest homes from teardown," Minneapolis Star-Tribune).  This year is the 50th anniversary of the creation of the historic district ("Minneapolis residents celebrate the 50th anniversary of Milwaukee Avenue Historic District," Minnesota Public Radio).

The city wanted to tear down the block for urban renewal, residents fought that off and as part of the reinvestment in the community, a two-block historic district was created, as well as the conversion of the street into a greenway.

Both articles have a photo gallery, and at the time yes, the houses were decrepit and you can see why the city wanted to demolish them.  OTOH, the condition of the houses today is a perfect example of why historic preservation works.  The houses needed new investment, not demolition, and the creation of the historic district provided the framework for that to happen.

Many houses along Milwaukee Av. were built as temporary homes for railroad workers. The State historical society wants to preserve the area as an example of a "common man's neighborhood in the 1880s. Built as temporary homes for railroad workers in the 1880s, many of Milwaukee Avenue's buildings have lost some of their original character through patchwork repairs.

Courtyard housing.  Some communities have similar blocks, but usually offset from the street, so that there is a greensward and sidewalk in the front, and alleys in back, connecting to the grid.  Salt Lake's Boulevard Gardens is one such example ("Salt Lake City’s ‘street without a street’ is a 90-year-old hidden gem —one that homeowners and historians hope to preserve," Salt Lake Tribune), but there are many others throughout the city.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Boulevard Gardens, a unique Salt Lake City subdivision near 1800 South between Main Street and West Temple, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. The homes were built between 1929 and 1931 and face into a large landscaped courtyard, which runs the entire length of the development.

Marshall Court farewell potluck.  Photo: Ryan Stanton, Ann Arbor News.

Not realizing I was a trendsetter, I lived in two different sets of courtyard housing when going to college in Ann Arbor.  On Marshall Court ("Saying goodbye to Ann Arbor's Marshall Court," Ann Arbor News), which is now part of a large assemblage of property being converted into a new dorm.

And on Mary Court, off Mary Street, near the intersection of State Street and Packard Avenue.  The other side of the 8 house block is being consolidated into a 32 unit apartment building project, which has not yet commenced construction.  (Ann Arbor is going through a massive intensification of real estate development now, "50-plus Ann Arbor developments to watch in 2025," Ann Arbor News).

Urgh.

Bye, charm of Mary Court.

A book called Pocket Neighborhoods covers more modern examples of courtyard housing.

Open Streets events as a way to pilot pedestrianized blocks.  Streets closed to traffic for special events are often considered what is called an Open Street, which is a tactical urbanism intervention.  They can be a way to change people's thinking about what is possible ("Could Philadelphia’s embrace of the Open Streets program spur more civic innovations to come?," Philadelphia Inquirer) when it comes to shifting space from motor vehicles to people ("Open Streets DC as an event versus an agenda").  From the PI:

The initiative — a plan to promote more pedestrian traffic by temporarily closing some of Center City’s most vibrant commercial corridors to motor vehicles — is an example of Philadelphia leaders thinking big — and sticking the landing.

The concept of Open Streets is simple. Taking advantage of lower weekend traffic numbers, the Center City District takes space usually used by cars and trucks and gives it over to pedestrians, creating a plaza-like atmosphere. The idea is that with less noise and pollution from vehicles and more space to stroll, shoppers and diners will have a nicer experience, replicating pedestrian zones in cities like Paris, Tokyo, and Bogotá, Colombia.

A leisurely Sunday chat in the middle of the street: Michael d’Amico and Leah Parentela (rear) who live in the neighborhood, are joined by Karen Tracy of Center City and her granddaughters Thia (left), 9, and Kahlan, 7, visiting from the suburbs. The 1700 block of Walnut Street was among blocks that were car-free on four September Sundays. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer, Philadelphia Inquirer.

31st Avenue, Astoria, Queens, New York City.

In Minneapolis, bicycle advocates used the Milwaukee Avenue street as an example of how to create a greenway on the northside of the city ("Proposed North Side greenway encountering some bumps," Minneapolis Star-Tribune).  It's taken 10 years, but the city is planning to create it now ("Minneapolis is ready to design the Northside Greenway. Do residents want it?," MST).

Pilot of a Northside Greenway at an Open Streets event in 2014.

DC makes yet another bad decision about streetcars: will replace the one line with a so called "fancy" bus | The Vision Thing

I got an email from a pr person about a conference in September about good ideas for urban revitalization, aimed at grassroots and neighborhood types.  I will write about it but I responded saying the problem isn't lack of ideas, it's how to get them implemented, amidst all the barriers that exist to hamper change as well as the long times to deliver a finished project.

I bring this up because DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the city is going to replace the streetcar with the next generation streetcar--A BUS!!!!!! ("Bowser to replace D.C. Streetcar with ‘next generation streetcar.’ It’s a bus.," Washington Post).

Funding for the streetcar ends after two more years in Bowser’s budget plan. City Administrator Kevin Donahue said at the announcement that the new streetcar would be “essentially buses that utilize” the streetcar system’s existing cables for power. It would make it possible “to more nimbly and quickly expand the streetcar line out beyond where we currently are,” he said.

Flickr photo by BeyondDC.

Local leaders have been pushing buses as the future of the city and regional transportation network, a lower-cost and more flexible alternative to rail in a time of federal cuts that limit transit funding. The single D.C. Streetcar line, which runs from Union Station to the edge of the RFK Stadium site, took far longer to build than planned and cost $200 million. A lack of separation from car traffic means double-parkers can block the tracks, making bus service more reliable. The streetcar carries a fraction of the number of riders of the express buses that travel the same route. Planned as the beginning of a 40-mile network, it was the only two miles built.

Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pose with a Commanders helmet at a news conference on April 10. (John McDonnell/for The Washington Post) 

JFC.  It illustrates the point that Mayor Bowser has no vision ("Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021), other than maybe a football stadium ("Questions on the Commanders stadium deal," Washington Post).

OTOH this is but one administration's failure after the failure of two others (Fenty and Gray).  I joke that DC and Seattle started streetcar planning the same year, but Seattle's first leg opened in 2007, and DC's in 2014.  

DC's failure led Arlington County to drop their streetcar planning even though Fairfax County was all in ("Arlington officials halt efforts on streetcars for Columbia Pike, Crystal City," "Arlington streetcar demise sends message to poorer residents: Keep riding the bus," Washington Post, 2014).

I used to say that were I to have pursued a PhD in planning my dissertation would have been on best (and worst) practices in civic engagement, since land issues "outside of schools, are the issues that that are most likely to get the average citizen involved and participating in local civic affairs."

Now--especially given the relative success of the area's Metrorail heavy rail system (problems there too, since 2009, but initially it was wildly successful)--I think it'd have to be transit planning failures in DC:  But that's way more topics than you can fit into a single dissertation!  

• WMATA's operation and financial issues
• Purple Line planning and construction failures, leading to a 40+ year period from when I first read about the idea in a Washington City Paper cover story in 1987, to operation in 2027.
• DC Streetcar planning within the city ("Velocity of change, streetcars, and H Street," 2011)
• and its effects on streetcar planning elsewhere, not just in nearby Arlington, but it other cities where transit opponents used it as a reason to rail against transit proposals.

Note: FWIW, Seattle has messed up with streetcar planning, expansion and operation too, but for different reasons.  Its primary supporter, Paul Allen of Microsoft fame was the major developer of the SoDo district, wanted it  as an activation device to push development, even with minimal ridership projections ("Seattle’s South Lake Union streetcar is an empty monument to money," Seattle Times).

Seattle streetcar lines active, and proposed (Mark Nowlin, Fiona Martin / The Seattle Times)

From a ridership perspective, the major problem with the streetcar is that they never built it beyond a short segment of the proposed H Street-Benning Road line, when it was supposed to be part of a network ("Irony of ironies: District Might Fast Track Georgia Avenue Streetcar to Walter Reed," 2011).  It's frequency isn't all that and the route is duplicated by the less upscale X2 bus line.

Map of proposed DC streetcar lines and bus rapid transit routes.  Washington Post graphic.

Many people complain/ed about how the line isn't grade separated, sharing right of way with motor vehicles, so the trips are slow.  But I argued those critics missed the point, that the streetcar is about intra-district transportation, not longer point to point trips, like from H Street to Union Station or to Downtown or Downtown to Georgetown, etc. ("Making the case for intra-city versus inter-city transit planning,," 2011, "STREETCARS ARE ABOUT TRANSIT, just in a different way from how most people are accustomed to thinking about it," 2014).

From a induced demand real estate development perspective, DC Streetcar has been a wild success, generating about $1 billion in development that likely wouldn't have occurred without the streetcar as a new anchor and development inducement.("Update/revision of H Street transit oriented real estate development table," 2016).  H Street NE has the highest density of any part of the city without a Metrorail station (it has stations on the edge, but not directly within the corridor).

That learning should have been applied to streetcar planning for other parts of the city:

• Georgia Avenue
• Kennedy Street/Riggs Road (not a planned line)
• Rhode Island Avenue from Laurel to Dupont Circle (much more truncated in planning)
• East of the River, etc.

Just on the basis of the likelihood of significant induced real estate generated economic development.

Plus the National Mall and South Capitol Street ("A National Mall-focused heritage (replica) streetcar service to serve visitors is a way bigger idea than a parking garage under the Mall," ).

Buses don't have the same ability to generate extranormal and successful economic development compared to fixed rail transit done right (The New Real Estate Mantra, APTA, "NoMa: The Neighborhood That Transit Built," Urban Land Magazine).

Conclusion.  A streetcar network in DC is a way better economic development inducement than a minimally used football stadium ("Arguments in defense of a stadium at RFK fall short of a first down," Greater Greater Washington).

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1.  When I first got involved in urban revitalization in DC, I thought that that the city economic planners were really smart.  It was merely a stitch in time.  At the time I didn't know much about economic development and they did.  With each year of involvement my knowledge base grew while theirs remained static.

2.  And I don't understand the opposition to other fixed rail transit modes in the DC area given the relative success of Metrorail.  It's as if Metrorail never existed.

3.  The Vision Thing was a quote by George H.W. Bush.  There's also a Sisters of Mercy song.

4.  One of my longest posts during the Gray Administration was my critique of the city sustainability plan.  I made the point that adopting practices not as good as the various best practice cities was not a way to be a national leader.  If you achieved those results you were still behind.  The same goes here, with streetcars.

Maybe the Williams Administration was the last one with some vision.

The UN-Habitat Urban Lab has published “My Neighborhood,” a publication that offers a checklist of urban design principles

aimed at creating more sustainable and resilient cities. Containing actions that are applicable at the neighborhood scale, the guide strives to present an integrated approach that responds to key sectors such as transportation, local urban initiatives, housing, public spaces, utilities, and more.

-- My Neighbourhood

Principles

-- Compact

-- Connected

-- Inclusive

-- Vibrant

-- Resilient

Associated with it is a "My neighbourhood" card game.

I didn't know Cumberland Maryland "had" a pedestrian mall

 I've written a lot about pedestrian malls in the US (versus pedestrian districts in Europe).  It's hard to make them work because our mobility paradigm is dominated by the car, and because Downtowns are no longer leader centers and destinations within metropolitan areas, the way they were before the rise of suburban shopping malls.  But some cities, in particular college towns like Boulder and Burlington, Vermont, and to some extent Charlottesville, have them.

I've come to realize that the point isn't necessarily to have a long pedestrian mall, but to start small, where you can be successful, even with one block.  And to heavily program and manage it

-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning," 2021
-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces"," 2020
-- "From more space to socially distance to a systematic program for pedestrian districts (Park City (Utah) Main Street Car Free on Sundays)," 2020
-- "Why doesn't every big city in North America have its own Las Ramblas?," 2020
-- "Diversity Plaza, Queens, a pedestrian exclusive block," 2020

-- "Now I know why Boulder's Pearl Street Mall is the exception that proves the rule about the failures of pedestrian malls," 2005

That being said, many places, including DC, have removed pedestrian malls over the years.

The DMV region has two pedestrian malls that I knew about, in Charlottesville and Winchester Virginia.  Both tend to peter out at the ends.  (As does the pedestrian mall in Santa Monica, especially as it has over the years lost department stores as key anchors.)

I didn't know about Cumberland Maryland, which was mentioned recently on the Reddit Walkable Streets thread.  

However, they are tearing up all that beauty and investment, and adding a traffic lane, which makes it less than a stellar example ("Downtown mall work on schedule," "Downtown construction includes unexpected challenges,"  Cumberland Times-News).

-- Reimagine Cumberland

It's a shame because photos indicated that the mall was super well executed, managed and maintained.  That being said, I guess infrastructure improvements are necessary, and for the most part, they will be keeping the overall focus on walking, not driving.

Flickr photo by Jacqui Trump.

Photo: Steve Bittner/Times-News.com 

Construction continues on Baltimore Street on Thursday, July 13, 2023.

Rendering of the newly constructed pedestrian mall

Equity/"Equity" versus efficiency and the school closure debate

I've mentioned that Salt Lake City is in the process of closing schools ("School closure and consolidation planning needs to focus on integration planning at the outset as a separate process").  

Enrollment of elementary school aged kids has dropped by 6,000 over the past 10 years, and the State Legislature has ordered the district to right size the number of elementary schools in response.

The way the city grew pre-1960s, there are a lot of schools concentrated in what is termed central city.  Even though the area is dense, and the city is growing in population, the number of households with children is declining, decreasing demand for classrooms.  Whereas when schools were built, they ended up being concentrated, because at the time there were lots of families with children.

On the other hand, on the east side of the city, schools are less concentrated so if a school is closed the distance a student will have to travel to another school is significantly increased or otherwise difficult.  

There is an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune, "Salt Lake school closures feels reminiscent of ‘The Hunger Games’," making the argument that equity demands that schools on the east side should be closed too, not just schools in the core.

I have made an equity argument before, although I didn't use that word, in arguing that strong neighborhoods are built around quality neighborhood schools ("National Community Planning Month: Schools as neighborhood anchors") and sometimes, when enrollment drops, it might be worth keeping a school open regardless because of its community impact.

But in the Salt Lake Schools case, the issue is efficiency--closing schools in an area where there is a preponderance of them, where there are other schools nearby that the students can attend--versus equity--closing schools across the city even if it isn't efficient and more costly, because it's unfair to make one particular area suffer most of the change.

I am on the efficiency side.

But it's interesting that equity is used as an argument generally, without acknowledging that sometimes it's just about cost, not unfairness.  

Note too in this case, it is about geographical and income equity, and much less about racial and demographic equity--although schools on Salt Lake's west side will also be "disproportionately" closed too, again because of demographics, not out of targeting.

The author uses low income students (Title I) as a proxy.  From the article:

The 25% schools with the lowest percent of low-income students are: Ensign (1.28%), Bonneville (8.24%), Uintah (9.18%), Indian Hills (13.25%), Highland Park (17.04%), Beacon Heights (18.21%) and Dilworth (20.22%). Combined, these schools served 376 Free Lunch students, which is 7.5% of the total Free Lunch students served in the SLCSD in 2022. 

Instead, the short-listed schools were selected west from the great divide in the central east and central west areas of SLCSD. Our tributes — Emerson, Hawthorne, Bennion, Riley, Jackson, Newman and Wasatch Elementaries — were reportedly identified through evaluation of all 27 SLCSD elementary schools, yet they are remarkably all geographically located west of the 25% most affluent neighborhoods and in two distinct lines that transect SLCSD, almost stacked like dominos, disproportionately impacting central east and central west neighborhoods.

It's an interesting argument, pitting middle class income whites against higher income whites (the area to the east is the highest income zip code in Salt Lake City).

Is it inequitable that a white household making $160,000 or more per year faces school closure and that a white household making $200,000 or more per year does not?