National Trails Day: Saturday June 6th

The first Saturday of June is National Trails Day.  I think that it should be leveraged to promote trail use, volunteerism wrt cleanups, as a day to celebrate opening new trails, facilities, etc. ("Thousands of volunteers help maintain WA trails each year," Seattle Times).  

Too often it isn't.

The American Hiking Society is the lead, but federal agencies, at least they used to, like the National Park Service and the US Forest Service were big celebrants.  

Biking and walking access is a big part of trails and Trails Day events.

US Forest Service lands are free access on Trails Day.  They have a lot of volunteer and other events that day, all over the country.

National Parks aren't free that day.

1.  Last month, while doing park playground evaluation for a grant application, I realized besides most places not having enough signage calling attention to trails, that trail signage could be augmented with information/icons pointing people to nearby services like restrooms or air pumps--bike maps often do this, but not signs.

-- "May is National Bicycle Month | More on the concept of adding services icons to bicycle route wayfinding signage"

2.  Years ago, I was blown away by a trail study for Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Ohio (Cuyahoga Greenways Plan) that did demographic studies about the increased range of jobs made available through the expansion of trail networks.  

I haven't stayed in close touch with bike planning best practice over the past few years, but I think this plan is definitely worth reading in terms of how it lays out goals and evaluation criteria for route selection, and even branding!

3. The basic idea is building a network for cycling.  I like the way an old German National Bicycle Plan illustrated the point.

I'm still proud of the concepts I developed many years ago in creating the Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan in terms of the scales at which to focus the development of bicycle and walking infrastructure ("Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces""):

• within neighborhoods
• one mile radius from schools and bus stops and transit stations
• three mile radius from "town centers"
• along corridors
• between corridors
• connections within and to parks, which I called a County bikeway network
• connections to neighboring jurisdictions (Baltimore County has borders with Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Howard County, Carroll County and Harford County in Maryland, and York County in Pennsylvania.

4.  With regard to trails as networks and infrastructure, urban trails can be particularly good at connecting neighborhoods to parks, libraries, shopping districts, grocery stores, schools and other civic assets.  The Northwest Branch Trail in Prince George's County does this very well--and it's the first trail that I really rode on that made me realize the value of trails versus street riding.

On the street, so much of your mental energy is occupied on defensive cycling.  You can drop a lot of that when riding trails, except for gauging the movement of pedestrians, little kids, dogs, roller bladers, scooter riders, skateboarders, etc.

On the Baltimore and Annapolis Trail and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, brewpubs in Iowa, etc. many businesses have opened rear entries to link to the adjoining trail.

The patio and 606 Trail access point at Wolf & Company in Bucktown. Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago.

In Chicago, the Wolf and Company restaurant is the first company to have placed a restaurant entry on  the 606 Trail.  

They specifically chose that building because it could support multiple concepts, including the trail.

Ironically, the 606 Trail was created to serve a lower income area of Chicago ("Lessons from The 606," DePaul University Institute of Housing Studies) but the Bucktown neighborhood where the restaurant is, is decidedly upscale.

The top floor is a cafe with coffee, tea and other drinks.

The bottom floor, 1752 N. Western Avenue opens to the street and neighborhood, with a full service restaurant, bar and market ("Bloomingdale Trotters Should Beware of Wolves, Not Foxes, Along the 606," Eater).

With a butcher case like this, and prices to match, the market is definitely a lot more than a typical convenience store focused on selling snacks and soda.

So Wolf & Company is three concepts: cafe; restaurant and bar; and upscale market, in one, connecting both to the 606 Trail and the Bucktown neighborhood.

5.  Speaking of branding, how about Promoting Bikeway Networks through Postcards?  The Alta Trail Map postcard below pictures their trails for winter skiing.  I like the icons they use to denote the various amenities at different trailheads.  Ski resorts promote mountain biking in summers as a way to build revenue off-season, and publish trail maps.

Relatedly, the Ketchum Idaho Visitor Center has trail maps posted on its walls.  As do some other groups.  But rarely bicycle shops.

6.  Not trails per se, but bikeways, Salt Lake is really doing a lot of great work ("Recent study cites Salt Lake City as one of the nation's safest metro areas for bicycling," Cache Valley Daily), even though its program to add sustainable mobility infrastructure to the city's streets has been stymied and preempted by the Utah State Legislature--legislators complain that bikeways make it hard for them to drive to the Capitol ("Utah Senate approves bill that blocks Salt Lake City's street improvement work," Salt Lake City Weekly).

7.  Besides the drying up of federal funding for sustainable mobility infrastructure ("Cities Losing Federal Support for Bike and Walking Infrastructure," Governing, "USDOT’s historic failure to advance any new transit projects in 14 months may be a sign of things to come," Transportation for America) and fortunately most states and localities are maintaining their commitments to biking and walking (and can't afford to cover federal government funding for transit) ... 

8.  the biggest issue in bicycle planning to me is not the development, construction and implementation of infrastructure and facilities, but providing the assistance people need to make the transition from automobile-centricity to biking.

I write about that here:

-- "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 26 programs"

9.  Secure bicycle parking networks operating at the metropolitan scale.  But while #24 is Provision of secure bicycle parking, and lockers and showers in destination districts.  Zoning requirements to build them in office buildings and campuses of a certain size.  Or as a proffer/ community benefit.

I failed to call out specifically the need for secure bicycle parking networks.  That means 27 points.  This covers the topic:

-- "If you're going to promote electric bikes at scale, there needs to be complementary investment in secure bicycle parking and charging" (2023)
-- "Bike to Work Day as an opportunity to assess the state of bicycle planning: Part 2, building a network of bike facilities at the regional scale" (2017)

Rennes, France does a good job with regional secure bike parking ("National Bicycle Month | Rennes, France: a national model").  Other European cities too.

10.  E-bikes can help a lot.  Years ago I was critical about e-biking, because I thought "regular" bikes worked in cities--especially in flat areas--just fine ("(Still) tired of mis-understanding of the potential for e-bikes."

E-bikes have the added benefit of 

1. extending the distance people are willing to commute by bike
2. making it easier for aging seniors to continue biking
3. making it easier to bike in hilly conditions
4. making a bicycle trip more competitive with car travel in terms of time, so that people actually switch trips from a car to a bike.

From Reddit. An Amazon e-bike vehicle making deliveries in DC.  Although some worry about such vehicles blocking bike lanes. 

11.  Making cycling irresistible. But my earlier position on "the right way to use electric bikes" made me remember job isn't to make plans about how I think people should bike.  It should be about building the conditions to make bicycling irresistible 

-- "Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany," Transport Reviews (2008).  

I used that paper as the foundation for this piece, which was commissioned at the time by the DC Bicycle Advisory Committee in response to a Rails to Trails Conservancy initiative.   

-- "Ideas for making bicycling irresistible in Washington DC" (2008)  

In writing, I made the point that DC is urban and should lay out an urban agenda for biking, as opposed to the more suburban and rural biking "sense" of the rails to trails movement.

I see one of the ideas, delivery services using bike-based vehicles is just now being implemented in DC.

12.  E-bikes and cargo bikes help people shift trips to and from school from car to bike. ("Small But Mighty: Electric Bicycles Can Bridge the Gap in Access to Transportation," National Laboratory of the Rockies, "Study finds that once people use cargo bikes, they like their cars much less," ArsTechnica).

13.  E-bike voucher programs are quick to fill up.  I didn't even know about the latest one in Utah ("Utah E-Bike Program offers $800 vouchers to qualified residents," ABC4).  It opened on June 1st.  Was full before the end of the day on June 3rd.

I like the usually these programs provide more support for those of lesser means.  But I think that they should be loan deductible programs like in in England or Ireland.   Sometimes, they are funded through carbon tax programs and similar kinds of impact fees.

14.  E-bikes on trails (and beaches) can be problematic.  On trails it is because they are faster than people on foot or regular bike.  And certain types of e-vehicles aren't bicycles, but more akin to motorcycles ("Iowa City needs a nuanced conversation about e-bikes," Iowa City Press-Citizen, "Iowa cities team up to promote e-bike safety on trails and sidewalks," Iowa Public Radio/NPR, "E-bikes are all over mountain trails. Some want them banned," "In the South Bay, e-bikes are restricted along the beach. Yet they’re still everywhere," Los Angeles Times, "Moab Opened 200 Miles of Trail to E-Bikes. I Was One of the First to Ride Them (Legally)," Outside).  From the first article:

Anyone who regularly uses Iowa City trails has likely seen the tension already developing: riders moving too quickly through crowded pedestrian areas, oversized throttle-powered bikes built more like motorcycles than bicycles, and parents purchasing machines online without realizing they may exceed Iowa’s legal definition of an e-bike. 

A sign posted at a trail entrance to the Aliso Wood Canyon Wilderness Park 

in Aliso Viejo, California restricts e-bike usage.

That matters because Iowa City has spent decades building trails designed to function as shared public spaces. Pedestrians, runners, wheelchair users, cyclists and families with strollers all use the same network. That system works because speed differences remain relatively manageable and predictable. A 12 mph difference matters on a crowded trail. A 30 mph difference changes the character of a shared trail completely. 

Unfortunately, the public conversation often collapses into two extremes. Either all e-bikes are treated as dangerous, or any discussion of regulation is dismissed as anti-bike hysteria. Both reactions miss the point. Most e-bike riders are responsible, and many are exactly the kind of people cities should want out of cars and onto trails. E-bikes reduce traffic, parking demand, and transportation barriers for people who might not otherwise ride at all. At the same time, it is reasonable to acknowledge that high-speed electric motorcycles do not belong on crowded recreational paths simply because they have pedals attached.

Ketcham, Idaho.

15.  Suggestion: Create a senior bike purchase deduction program from the social security benefits program.  I recently suggested Medicare could do this for seniors ("The "new" Washington Post editorial page blows a chance to be innovative | Nudging versus "nannyism" and senior health care"), but instead of deducting from your payroll check, from your Social Security check.  

There is clear value for promoting senior biking as a fitness measure.  Let's make it easy.  People with lower incomes could get a match--the check doesn't go all that far for many and i can be difficult to save up for big expenditures.

16.  Speaking of seniors, we need to have programs that promote walking and biking as people age.  Some senior centers and organizations do this on a national best practice basis ("Freewheelers: Old Spokes Bicycle Club," Philadelphia Inquirer).  Apparently there is a similarly named Old Spokes group in Calgary.  

Baltimore County Office of Aging sponsors a Cycling Seniors program.  Etc.

A couple years ago, Washington Area Bicyclists Association did an active transportation expo for seniors.  

I think all senior center programs should develop and implement similar kinds of programs.

17.  Acknowledge and respond to climate change.  Trails should consider adding push button mister stations to deal with the heat.  

Water stations where they can be installed, based on access to utilities.

Add shade structures and tree plantings.  With the aim that over decades, the trees become tall enough to provide significant shade.

A mister on a playground.  

 

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.

Sometimes you've got to recognize reality and let things go: the diminishment of DC's "Chinatown" as an authentic place

 DC no longer has much of a "Chinatown," although there are some remnants, because as property prices increased and the central business district continued to grow and intensify, succeeding generations immigrated directly to the suburbs ("The End of the American Chinatown," Atlantic, 2019)  From "What makes a Chinatown Chinese?":

With traffic in no logic, streets that never seem to rest, and an earthy, old country-ish smell that greeted me on my arrival, I felt nothing but foreign in this town. All signs are in Chinese: advertisements, store windows, crates selling bok choy and other food items, newspapers, and street posters. I find myself part amused part clueless. 

San Francisco

My fascination with Chinatown began on my very first visit. As a starry-eyed tourist, I was left admiring the Chinese-style buildings and colorful elements adorning the bustling streets. I wondered what really made a Chinatown Chinese. What makes these ‘towns’ unique? Have they remained traditional as they were once? What led to the origin of Chinatowns across the globe in the first place? Below, I explore one such Chinatown in America.

For DC, that's the Annandale area of Fairfax County, which is also highly represented by other Asian ethnicities, in particular Vietnamese (which first moved to Clarendon in Arlington County post-fall of the South Vietnamese government, another example of emigrating directly to the suburbs) and Koreans.

This isn't an issue unique to DC -- "The politics of Chinatown development in American cities," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

abstract:

Through a comparative case study of Chinatowns in Chicago, New York City, Oakland, and San Francisco, this paper argues that the variation in the trajectory of Chinatown development is contingent upon two major factors, namely, the internal cohesion of Chinatown elites (cohesive versus fragmented) and the political integration of the Chinese community into local politics (strong versus weak). Based on the two dimensions of internal cohesion and political integration, the paper creates a fourfold typology of Chinatown development: constrained development, shrinking neighbourhood, contested development, and comprehensive development. The typology provides an analytical framework to study the development of Chinatown and other ethnic communities beyond the cases.

-- "5 Chinatowns and the Communities Working to Preserve Them," National Trust for Historic Preservation 
-- Strategies for sustainable Chinatown, SF Planning
-- Revitalizing Chinatown Businesses: Challenges And Opportunities, Asian American Federation
-- "How to Save Chinatown: Preserving affordability and community service through ethnic retail," Berkeley Planning Journal
-- "Maintaining Authenticity in Ethnic Enclaves: Chinatown, Koreatown, and Thai Town, Los Angeles," masters thesis
-- "Chinatown: The Neoliberal Remaking of Culture in the Contemporary City," University of Chicago
-- "Rethinking the Growth Machine: How to Erase a Chinatown from the Urban Core," Urban Geography

-- "A New Chapter for the Eden Center?," Arlington Magazine
-- "At the Eden Center, historic businesses stand tall and new ones plant roots, ARLNow
-- "New Tools for Keeping Immigrant-Owned Shops in Place," (University of) Maryland Today

And wrt to government goals it becomes the tension between a thriving residential and commercial district and Asian identity ("Chinatown versus Chinese identity") versus an entertainment district.

Chinatown hasn't had "spectacular shopping" for decades. Gallery Place ad display, 2009.

But DC wants another try, according to the Washington Business Journal, "Tim Ma, Winston Lord tapped to lead next stage of Chinatown revitalization."  From the article:

Lord and Ma say they will act as a liaison between various legislative bodies and the community, connecting residents with programs and opportunities as well as leveraging their resources and connections with the District to mitigate challenges that community members are facing. 

The council, on first reading, also approved more than $8 million to fund construction of Gallery Square, a designated "high priority" project recommended by the task force, which aims to transform the space surrounding the Reynolds Center into a plaza that will host performances and markets. The council will consider the measure on second reading July 28.

But some residents and advocates aren’t convinced this plan will address the core challenges facing working-class Chinatown residents. Over the decades, the community has stood at a crossroads, balancing the increased foot traffic from large-scale developments with rising rent prices that have displaced small businesses and longtime residents.

This follows the creation of a "Chinatown Task Force" and aims to implement its findings.  It listed eight items as part of a presentation at an open house last year.

The Task Force’s focus areas include: 

• Visioning: Develop a strategic vision for the future of the two city blocks that make up the Capital One Arena and Gallery Place, and reimagine the potential for amenities, activities, and new uses for this vibrant neighborhood. 

• Activation: Identify temporary and permanent activation programs, including special events, to generate foot traffic and increase visitation to Gallery Place/Chinatown. The Task Force will identify and coordinate activities to enhance public safety, cleanliness, and public health resources in and around Gallery Place/Chinatown.

• Investments and Incentives: Source, evaluate, and recommend investment tools to support stabilization of existing businesses, prioritize critical capital investments, and reposition real estate assets into new productive uses.

• Community Engagement and Marketing: Promote community activations and provide updates about changes and planning for the future of Gallery Place/Chinatown.

I think it's a lost cause, not just because of the proximity of Capital One Arena, home to professional basketball and hockey, but because you can't have an ethnic district without ethnic residents and businesses (""Richard's Rules for Restaurant (Food) Based Revitalization, Salt Lake City and DC's Chinatown").  Even though the Task Force came up with a decent plan if you look at it in a vacuum separate from the reality on the ground.

-- 5 Goals for Chinatown, DC Planning

Chinatown only has a few hundred Asian residents, and has been shrinking ever since the construction of the original Convention Center in 1984.  The Task Force committee only had one Asian member, and all the co-chairs are Anglo or Black.

Are they going to provide incentives for Chinese people to live there?  From the 2013 blog entry, "Sometimes shouldn't you just call it a day: maintaining DC's Chinatown":

I think it's time to call it a day on Chinatown. For a long time, it's been Gallery Place. A handful of Chinese restaurants, a couple stores selling Asian knick-knacks, some lightpoles, and a senior housing building that looks the same as any other housing building constructed in the 1960s or 1970s doesn't make a place "Chinatown."

Compared to thriving Asian communities within other cities, such as Chinatown in Manhattan or the Chinatownization of Main Street Flushing (see "In Neighborhood That's Diverse, a Push for Signs" and "The Melting Pot on a High Boil in Flushing" from the New York Times), putting Chinese characters on signs for restaurants and other retail establishments just doesn't cut it.

Salt Lake City and Japantown.  Apparently there was a Japanese district on the edge of downtown, although it was pretty much eradicated a few decades ago with the construction of the Salt Palace Convention Center, where like Chinatown in DC, the core of the district was lost as 93 businesses closed and the population dispersed.

Down to a single block, two religious institutions--a Christian church and a Buddhist temple--remain.

As part of the creation of a "sports and entertainment district" around Delta Center arena, which now has both professional basketball and hockey after last year's relocation of the Phoenix Coyotes, there are plans for rebuilding this district ("At Nihon Matsuri festival, Salt Lake City Japantown leaders consider risks, merits of sports district," Salt Lake Tribune, "Cautious optimism for Salt Lake City Japantown’s future," Nichi Bei News).

From the SLT article:

And while project leaders say it will ultimately improve Japantown, local leaders who remember losing the culture hub to eminent domain and development in the 1960s are skeptical.

“I grew up here, and I remember as a child coming to Japantown and it was a cultural gathering place in those days,” said Floyd Mori, the festival founder and chair. “That was lost. It just went poof because all the commercial establishments were eliminated.”

I didn't know, being a recent transplant to the city, that movement for restoration predates the current Arena-related program  ("Revitalizing Japantown Street," University of Utah Alumni Magazine, Japantown Visioning Project).

I think it's headed for the same end as DC's Chinatown.  While one of the above-cited works includes a reference to Japantown in Los Angeles, the same dynamics pertain to other ethnic districts be they Japanese, Italian, Polish, German, Hispanic, Greek, Jewish districts, etc. 

If you lose the dynamism of the immigrant migration chain--first to the city then to the suburbs instead of direct to the suburbs, ethnic residents and businesses, and a strong demand for ethnically-related business activity rooted in serving the native population, there isn't enough economic, residential, and social activity to maintain the integrity of the district.

Dynamics of district failure can be extended beyond ethnic enclaves.  Thinking about the paper, "The politics of Chinatown development in American cities" (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, I realize the dynamics of ethnic district shrinkage are likely the same for other types of "districts" in cities be they ground-up developed arts districts that lose out to real estate development, working ports that are replaced by waterfront entertainment districts, New York City's garment district, etc.

Deeper insights into the Growth Machine thesis ("The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place," American Journal of Sociology). I am thinking this dissertation is well worth a complete read, because its findings along with some of the key cited works, are very much extendable to the analysis of other types of development within cities, especially in terms of decision making.  Its findings might be a very good extension to Growth Machine Theory--the book Urban Fortunes is cited, although the author doesn't believe that the theory is particularly applicable to understanding the growth and decline of Chinatowns..

I argue the Urban Regime Theory of political science provides the explanation for "how" the Growth Machine works.  The findings of this dissertation could take that further.

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"Unrelated" is the value of immigration to the revitalization of cities facing out-migration and broken economies, e.g., the Somalis in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Portugese in various East Coast cities, etc.  Writer Doug Saunders captures this in the book Arrival City ("Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World by Doug Saunders," Guardian).  Although Saunders focuses on much larger cities.

And the attack on immigrants by the Trump Administration. Which fails to acknowledge the importance of immigrants both to the national economy as well as to local economies, some extremely small, like Denison, Iowa.

-- "Immigrants as in-migration and city-town revitalization," 2024

Arbor Day

Some of the articles about Earth Day (4/22/25, usually acknowledged the weekend before or after) focused on acts people can take to make a difference.  

One is planting trees.  Many Earth Day events are organized around tree planting events organized by local and state tree advocacy groups.  

Such groups may be necessary in the face of municipal budget cuts ("LA’s Tree Emergency Goes Beyond Vandalism," Planetizen) and failures by agencies ("Salt Lake City’s Public Lands Department accidentally poisons 200 trees," Salt Lake Tribune) and misguided legislators ("Are trees ‘the enemy?’ Some Utah lawmakers claim overgrown forests suck too much water," SLT).

Arbor Day is held the last Friday in April, as a way to focus on the place and role of trees in our communities.

-- last year's entry, "Arbor Day: Street Trees of Seattle by Taha Ebrahimi | Trees as Cultural Landscape (at the community scale)"

1. Cities and/or neighborhoods as community forests ( Interactive map of many US cities, "Which cities have the most trees? See how yours stacks up," Washington Post).  For years I've suggested that cities, and more recently, maybe neighborhoods, should think of their tree cover as an urban or community arboretum.  

Morton Arboretum in Illinois runs the Arbnet accreditation program, and a few smaller cities have this certification.  DK about any neighborhoods.

Also see "A sequoia forest in Detroit? Plantings to improve air quality and mark Earth Day," AP.

Arborists are turning vacant land on Detroit’s eastside into a small urban forest, not of elms, oaks and red maples indigenous to the city but giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees that can live for thousands of years. .

The project on four lots will not only replace long-standing blight with majestic trees, but could also improve air quality and help preserve the trees that are native to California’s Sierra Nevada, where they are threatened by ever-hotter wildfire.

Detroit is the pilot city

for the Giant Sequoia Filter Forest. The nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive has donated dozens of sequoia saplings that were planted Tuesday by staff and volunteers from Arboretum Detroit, another nonprofit, to mark Earth Day

TreeCity USA is another Arbor Day Foundation program rewarding cities for their commitment to urban forestry.

Relatedly, while seeing only limited use, SF has an "Green Benefits District," which is a special tax increment financing mechanism that can be used to maintain and improve public spaces.  One is active in the Dogpatch-NW Portrero neighborhood.

Cass Avenue, Mt. Clemens Michigan.

2.  An alternate way to think about local government planning and the role of trees, is treating Streets as linear parks, framed by trees ("Linear parks: Adding value to urban landscape," Question of Cities).  

Before the dominance of the car, streets were treated more as landscapes with plantings, rather than utilitarian spaces.

Similarly, a "parkway" is more about the landscape than a freeway.

3.  Green bonds as a funding source. Likely to dry up during the Trump Administration, this Philadelphia Inquirer article is about the best explanation of how they work, "Longwood Gardens’ $250 million renovation taps increasingly popular ‘green’ bonds."

4.  Fruit trees in the public space.  Not just pretty but a source of food.  But they are messy.  Salt Lake's Green Urban Lunch Box, which has a focus on fruit trees as part of urban food systems, put itself on hiatus because of funding unpredictability.

Sugar maple trees are a source of maple syrup ("Rhode Island Couple Tapping Trees for Syrup," FUN107). 

5. Tree vandalism.  "Vandals chainsaw dozens of trees across downtown L.A.," Los Angeles Times and "Homeless Couple Destroys Young Trees At SF’s Jefferson Square Park," Beyond Chron.  WTF?  The cost of lost trees can be considerable.

A woman walks around a felled tree along South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday. (Photos: Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

L.A.’s fragile urban canopy was dealt a vicious blow this weekend when a chainsaw-wielding vandal cut down a number of shade trees along South Grand Avenue and other areas of downtown, according to media posts and photos uploaded to Reddit and Instagram. 

-- "Chain-saw-wielding man suspected of felling downtown L.A. trees is arrested," LAT 

6.  Rich people unauthorized cutting of trees to improve the viewshed from their home is a common problem ("Southbury couple says they will pay $600,000 judgement for illegally removing town-owned trees," CT Insider). And developers ("Fort Worth council ‘speaks for the trees’ with tougher fines for clear cutting," Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

Not everyone agrees ("Do cedar trees have more rights than homeowners? Texas lawmakers pushes new bills to remove protections," KXAN/Austin).

Texas lawmakers are taking on cedar allergies during the 89th Legislative Session. Two bills, House Bill 3798 and Senate Bill 1927, aim to prevent a city from prohibiting the removal of an Ashe Juniper tree.

“It’s these liberal urban communities, like the city of Austin, who are trying to put cedar trees over private property rights and over protecting native flora and fauna,” said State Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Burnet County.

Also see, about examples in England ("Felled giants expose gaps in tree protection," Guardian).

We should have a system of protection like Toronto, Canada, where virtually all trees, public and private, are automatically protected and any felling requires a licence to be obtained. Where felling is permitted, the bylaws also require new trees to be planted and there are penalties of up to C$100,000 (£54,000) if you contravene the law.

7.  Trees as woke.  The Trump Administration sees planting trees as a verboten DEI initiative (Milwaukee church saw opportunity to plant trees on empty land. Trump team saw DEI effort," USA Today).  Also, grant rescissions by the Trump Administration affect grants to states by the US Forest Service.  The grant was for increasing biodiversity of the tree cover.

8.  With climate change invasive non-native trees are an increasing problem ("Nonnative tree invaders lead to declines in native tree species richness," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.).  Also see "Column: Death to the Bradford pear tree," Daily Tar Heel.

9.  As mentioned in the Earth Day entry.  The Trump Administration intends to Increase cutting of trees in US Forest Service lands ("USDA Opens 59% of Federal Forest for Logging to Manage Fire Risk," Bloomberg).  Plus defunding the agency  and cutting science projects.  Given the increase in the geographic spread and virulence of wildfire, the cuts extend to personnel who respond to wildfires ("‘Crazy’: Forest Service cuts ignite fear, fury over wildfire risks," Politico).  

The Ocean County wildfire covered 8,500 acres and led to about 3,000 residents being evacuated, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. Photo: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Wildfires in states are an increasing problem ("N.J. wildfire swells to 11,500 acres, could become biggest in two decades," Philadelphia Inquirer).

10.  Revival of wood as a building material in taller buildings ("How wood is making a comeback in construction," U of Utah).

Ascent Tower in Milwaukee is the tallest timber constructed building in the US.

Although there is a "sweet spot" or limit on when it makes sense to use wood and when not to ("Building tall with timber "does not make sense" say experts," Dezeen).