Parks Week #2: Gaps in Parks Master Planning

Parks Week.  I am calling this "Parks Week" because for the first time I will be attending the National Recreation and Parks Association national conference, in Philadelphia.  I hope to learn a lot and write some posts too.

Looking southeast across Sugar House Pond.

Based on my experience as a board member of Sugar House Park, a park in Salt Lake City that is jointly owned by the city and county, and overseen by a proto-land trust ("the board") I wrote a ten part series on "gaps in parks master planning."

Not every park master plan has these gaps, but enough do, or the way that they address one of the gaps may be inadequate, hence the list.

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

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

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

Children playing at the Parley's Creek Playground.

I have two more in (desultory) progress, one on park equity, the other on recreation center planning in downtowns.

The first piece is definitely out of my experiences both in DC and on the east coast, as well as the tricky intergrovernmental relationships in Salt Lake.

It's on "Levels of Service," the basic point is that urban parks have more needs for maintenance, perhaps programming, security, and other elements compared to most suburban parks.  This creates a problem with the County because most of their experience with parks is suburban.  E.g., they have limited problems with homelessness (so do we, but it's purely out of luck--geographical and topographical elements of the park make it not particularly attractive for the homeless).

The other thing is that as a well-situated urban park, it's used all year long, even in the winter the playgrounds are used.  And that we should have more staff in keeping with this demand.

Business districts address having greater needs than a city is prepared to provide by creating business improvement districts, which provide additional services, especially on "clean and safe issues" which is funded by a small tax on property in the defined geographical area of the district.

Parks can be funded similarly.  There is a property tax that helps to fund Bryant Park in NYC.  But a similar tax proposed for the High Line failed.  Not quite the same, SF has "green benefits districts" which fund public space improvements and maintenance.

What parks have as a form comparable to a BID is a conservancy, which raises money independent of the city and uses those funds to supplement funds that the city continues to provide for operations and capital improvements.  Generally, the conservancy is the lead on managing the park day to day.

The first entry goes into this in detail.

Tree climbing at Sugar House Park.

Other entries that are really specific to my experience are on using academic research and best practice to guide action on matters not covered by a master plan, planning art programs systematically, programming, including public art as a element of parks, using park architectural history as a way to guide building design issues, and managing the park as a cultural landscape:

e.g., Sugar House Park has six primary features defining the Park--what we call "Big Field" a large grassy bowl which abuts (2) Parley's Creek, (3) which in turn feeds Sugar House Pond, (4) the sledding hill, (5) the sledding hill on the east side of the park; together they illustrate that Sugar House Park is hilly compared to many other parks in the area, and (6) the view to the east of the Wasatch Front Mountains, although from some parts of the park the view to the west includes the Oquirrh Mountains.

The planning arts programs systematically entry is also very good.

Separately, I haven't written about it in the blog, but an article in the Washington Post, "Forget rest stops. Plan your road trip around playgrounds," gives us a lot to think about, especially because the park abuts I-80.  

It shapes the idea of having a visitor center on private property abutting the park--I wrote about that issue here, "Learnings from a recent zoning issue I've been involved in."

Land We Share Summit, Salt Lake City, Friday October 2nd

Given that this past Saturday was National Public Lands Day (blog entry), and the issues I wrote about concerning Utah, it's great timing that the second Land We Share Summit on public lands in the state of Utah is coming up later this week.

The sessions look amazing

--Morning Plenary: "Threats to the National Monuments"

-- Breakout: Rural organizing

-- Breakout: Economics of open space

-- Breakout: Wildland Fire, Wildlife and Watersheds

-- Breakout: Indigenous Co-Management

-- Lunch Plenary: "The State vs. The Environment"

-- Breakout: Running for Office

-- Breakout: Attacks on Public Landsiv>

-- Breakout: "Wild" Places in the 21st Century

-- Breakout: Your Brain Outside

-- Session: "Wild" Places in the 21st Century

-- Keynote from Winona LaDuke

-- Happy Hour and Networking

Unfortunately I will be out of town.

Wild Turkeys sitting on a bench on 200 South in Salt Lake City

 

A less dangerous form of the urban-wildlife interface.

Valvoline Oil Change Shop puts tongue in cheek ad on their sign about "pumpkin spice" oil changes

September and October is the time where all kinds of food markets, coffee shops, etc., get on the pumpkin spice bandwagon, offering items featuring the spice.

This Valvoline Oil Change marquee sign ad pokes fun at the practice.

This article in Forbes Magazine "American Airlines Joins $500 Million Pumpkin Spice Fall Flavor Trend," make the point that the flavor is big business. From the article:

First introduced by Thompson & Taylor Spice Co. and McCormick & Company in the 1930s as a quick ingredient blend for pumpkin pie, the spicy mix remained quietly tucked away on kitchen shelves and was generally reserved for the holidays until Starbucks introduced its Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003.

 

"Parks Week": Yesterday was National Public Lands Day

Parks Week.  I am calling this "Parks Week" because for the first time I will be attending the National Recreation and Parks Association national conference, in Philadelphia.  I hope to learn a lot and write some posts too.

National Public Lands Day is Today.  Throughout the year I collect stories relevant to National Public Lands Day, which is the last Saturday in September.  Sometimes I manage to publish a piece in advance, sometimes not.  This is pretty late in the day but just read something that blew me away even more, so here goes.

National Public Lands Day is focused on but not exclusively oriented to federal public lands.  There are many types: National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation--dams, but often with recreational elements, the Army Corps of Engineers, dams some with recreational elements.

On this day, many federal installations have volunteer opportunities and entrance to federal public lands is free.

Some only some of the bad s*** Trump is doing to public lands

So the Trump Administration has been doing its best to f* up federal lands, and the supine Republican Congress seems to be just fine with it.  Of course, the year started out with Trump's face put on visitor passes.  

2.  I hope the Democrats make a law preventing a president from trying to put his name on f* everything.  This week there were reports that since he isn't getting his way with the Kennedy Center, nor the Institute of Peace--what a laugher, that there's consideration of renaming Ford's Theatre in DC--where Lincoln got shot!  Why the f* should his name have anything to do with it? ("Why does Trump want to name Lincoln assassination venue after himself? Dem strategist has a theory," AL.com).  Remember, every accusation by Trump is an admission ("Trump erupts after report claims aides want Ford Theatre renamed for him: ‘Ridiculous lie’s," NJ.com).

Parenthetically, a Canadian Substack, Dean Blundell's "Canada Versus Everybody," ("MAGA Is Losing The Senate And The House, But America Doesn't Get Its Allies Back Until Every Crook, Coward And Crypto Dollar Is Dragged Into Court") points out that the US will still not be trusted after Trump is gone unless there is true deep cleaning, on the scale of the Nuremberg Trials.  

He says that every time bad stuff happens, people get pardoned, so there are no long term repercussions and each bad administration takes it up another level.  An example is how Scooter Libby unveiled a CIA agent for political reasons and was convicted but then got pardoned.  He had an op-ed in the Washington Post this week, "America needs to destroy what really sustains the Iranian regime."  Not much of a punishment.

I'm fine with renaming all the toilets in federal buildings after Trump, along with sewage treatment centers and landfills, but that's it.  

3.  Whitewashing American History.  The Trump Administration has been "white washing" American History to diminish the stories and experiences of people who aren't white ("This article is more than 2 months old ‘A sanitized view of America’: inside Trump’s campaign to erase US history from national parks," Guardian), like Blacks and slavery--over the worry this could unduly hurt white people.  Talk about snowflakes.  The right calls the left snowflakes but they're the ultimate ("Are Conservatives the new snowflakes?," Free Press).

Workers remove displays from the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

This started with interpretation boards at federal public lands, mostly National Parks, including the President's House in Philadelphia ("Slavery exhibits at the President’s House have been swapped for the Trump administration’s version," "Centuries of controversy at the President’s House," Philadelphia Inquirer) and now extends to the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall space on which Smithsonian Museums abut, putting up signs warning people about the false histories presented by the various Smithsonian Museums ("Trump administration plans ideological warning signs for Smithsonian," NPR).  Trump also wants an abstract sculpture replaced with a 30 foot tall George Washington. 

FWIW, this has been a conservative issue for decades, I wrote about it in 2008, "Dancing with the one that brung ya and challenging the dominant narrative." Then I termed it a battle between American hagiography and stories (e.g., George Washington and the cherry tree) and a deeper interpretation and narrative.  My joke was imagine if we reinterpreted the exhibits at the National Museum of American History in terms of American Imperialism.  

This time the White House released a report, Saving America's Story, which was countered by premier historians ("Historians Reject White House’s Criticism of Smithsonian Museum," New York Times).

Tired, the leader of the Smithsonian has resigned ("Why Lonnie Bunch Is Leaving the Smithsonian," Atlantic).  Even though Trump fired him when he canned board members at the Kennedy Center, I think David Rubenstein would be good.  He's not a cultural historian, but he funds culture and understands politics and turnaround situations ("Smithsonian leadership changes give Trump an opening for control," Post).

Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP.

4.  (I forgot) The Reflecting Pool and DC Lands, Potomac Park golf course, the White House Ballroom and the Arch... and National Security.  Yes, Trump wants to makeover DC.  Earlier this summer we had the debacle of failed improvements to the Reflecting Pool, which he blamed on vandals.  It and big parts of the National Mall are fenced off.

He's put money into some improvements in what DC locals consider local parks but they are run by the NPS because of the federal relationships.  For years, many of us criticized the Park Service, partly because they are more focused on big national parks, but they do have a lot of knowledge still, it's just not been funded (Small Park Management Strategies, NPS).

So why the press and the rest of the country was critical about park entrance fees being diverted to DC, I thought it was okay because of the decades of under investing in NPS's DC installations ("National Park Entrance Fees Are Funding Trump’s D.C. Projects," NYT).

A banner in Logan Circle with a graffiti tag on it Wednesday May 5th, 2026. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post)

Of course, Trump had to put his name on the improvements, at least on banners ("Trump demands gratitude in D.C. So he put up banners thanking himself.," Post).  People fought back, as they have in terms of specious prosecutions, opposition to National Guardsmen in the city, etc.

Instagram photo from Popville.

I meant to write about the Ballroom debacle and the Arch but I haven't gotten around to it.  Trump appointed lackeys to the Commission on Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, removing that level of what had once been judicious and careful oversight ("Trump has gotten rid of many of the checks and balances that could stop him from demolishing the Kennedy Center," Conversation).  

He tore down the White House Ballroom without authorization to build a much bigger one, intending for it to be paid "by contributors" (more grift) but with the American People with the final bill.  To get out of oversight he's claiming national security ("Trump’s Shoddy Ballroom Design Is the Real National Security Threat," New York Magazine).  Which isn't a winning argument so far.  But of course the Supreme Court lets construction continue despite the lawsuits.

Same with "the arch" a 250 foot monstrosity modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.  To get away with it he claims it can house snipers and drones so it's national security too ("Trump says his ballroom will house a drone port. The Secret Service has one next door," ABC-TV, "How Militarizing the Triumphal Arch Could Backfire for Trump," Atlantic). 

Pristine is not a word that marks Trump's treatment of golf courses.  

Caption: The East Potomac Park Golf Course is seen from the Washington Monument, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The golf course at East Potomac Park was first targeted as a place for ballroom demolition construction debris.  Now he's taking that over too.  Again, the Department of Interior is his lapdog, plus NCPC, so there are no checks and balances ("Park Service quietly awards contracts to work on Trump’s takeover of East Potomac golf course," AP).

Signage in Washington, D.C., stating "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on June 11. Photo: Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

5.  And the Kennedy Center.  This mess is pretty damning and widely covered ("How President Trump Broke the Kennedy Center, NYT, "What the Kennedy Center’s Tax Return Reveals," Atlantic).  

The latest is threats to demolish the building while they blame safety reasons they've known about and failed to address ("Kennedy Center put off planned repairs despite known structural issues, former employees allege," PBS).

6.  But hey, what about public lands?  How about the National Forests.  The Administration has already fired bunches of FS workers.  Now they are downsizing the department and moving it to Salt Lake, with the justification that it's closer to where most of the forests are ("The Forest Service is moving its federal HQ to Salt Lake City. Here’s why," Salt Lake Tribune, "Understanding The Forest Service Move To Utah," Flylords,) 

While taking other destructive measures ("U.S. Forest Service to Open Millions of Acres to Off-Road Vehicles, Memo Shows," "Trump Administration Moves to Allow Logging in National Forests," "Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk," New York Times).

Utah is the center of opposition to public lands under federal control ("Utah files ambitious lawsuit to take control of 18.5 million acres of federal public land," Utah News Dispatch, "Inside Utah’s PR campaign to seize public lands," HighCountry News, "Utah wants more control over federal lands. Here’s how lawmakers are advancing the fight," Salt Lake Tribune).

The reality is that there are national forests in 40 states and Puerto Rico, so a Western location is more about making it easier to f* with the lands.  

Besides the firing of workers, closing of offices, elimination of research programs, they are trying to open up forests to road building, when the prevailing authority is that forests should be wilderness where they can, hence no roads ("Trump administration moves to open untouched national forests to logging," NPR).

More Than Just Parks is a great Substack about public lands. Their coverage is astounding in its detail and insight.

Crowds hike their way up the Mist Trail, one of the more popular trails in Yosemite National Park. Photo: William Hale Irwin for the LA Times.

7.  Yosemite National Park in California.  It's well known that the parks experiencing the most visitors are overwhelmed.  Yosemite is one of them.  Not only did they fire a bunch of workers.  They ended the reservation system, so the park is overwhelmed still ("Crushing crowds turn Yosemite into ‘Disneyland.’ Can visitors still have fun?," Los Angeles Times).

To make it worse, the Trump Administration wants to give part of it to a private developer to enable them to monetize proximity to the Park ("Map shows where Yosemite developer wants to build private road," SFGate).  

The first Trump Administration tried to give a lot more concessions to the private sector in National Parks, but they didn't have enough time.  This Administration, mostly they've been too busy focused on eliminating workers, research programs, and checks on overtourism.

8.  WTF?  A baseball stadium in Grand Tetons National Park.  Ironically I was at that park a couple weeks ago.  

It's beautiful, and poking in the museum shop at the city history museum I came across some interesting books on its history--land was acquired by the Rockefellers and given to the federal government to create the park.  

The museum has a small but detailed and thorough thematic presentation of the history of the area, from the Native Americans to Hollywood and tourism, and how the recreation industry--skiing and whitewater rafting sectors--got their start in the Tetons.

We didn't see as much as the park I would have liked, but it's close, about a 4 hour drive.

Anyway, apparently Major League Baseball has the insane idea of desecrating a national park by playing a baseball game in one.  

My photos aren't as good as this.  Caption: A view of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. (Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images).

Trump seems to think it would be fine at the Grand Tetons National Park (" Trump administration considers building baseball park in Grand Teton National Park that could host a Major League Baseball game." Post, "The real Field of Dreams: MLB has a new stadium opening—in an Iowa cornfield," Fortune).  

I don't think a fiction writer can come up with the narratives the Trump Administration performs in real life.

From the article:

An MLB official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the league approached the administration after the success of MLB’s other stand-alone events, such as the recurring Field of Dreams game in Iowa. The idea of playing a game in a national park is one of several that MLB is exploring.

... National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands visited Grand Teton National Park this week and looked at three potential locations for a baseball park within the park’s boundaries, the two people familiar with the matter said.

... A prized national park like Grand Teton is not an appropriate place for a baseball park, said Betsy Buffington, Northern Rockies regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group.

“It is irreplaceable. There is no other Grand Teton that is home to bears and wolves and bison, elk and pronghorn,” Buffington said in an interview. “So the idea that we would put a baseball stadium in Grand Teton National Park is just — what would the word be? — ludicrous. Crazy. Ridiculous. I mean, I just can’t fathom.”

Probably it would be a simple field, like the Field of Dreams stadium.  But it's still a desecration, and the transportation complexities of holding such an event there would be considerable.  The roads do not have that kind of special event capacity.  Plus it's just wrong, interfering with the principles of why National Parks exist.  From the law creating the National Park Service:

"....to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. 

 —National Park Service Organic Act; August 25, 1916

A baseball field is not congruent with the law guiding the creation and management of national parks. 

Photo: On the Road Facebook Page.  Driving through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from Kanab to Page, Arizona, on US 89A.

9.  Speaking of Utah, the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments battle continues.  Republicans in the state were fine with the Trump Administration reducing the land reserved for the monument ("Utah Delegation Welcomes President Trump's Monument Proclamation," Rep. Celeste Maloy).  The Obama Administration increased it, after a many year public process, the first Trump Administration reversed, the second Trump Administration again reduced it.

(Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Autumn Gillard and others protest President Donald Trump's shrinking of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Ecalante national monuments in St. George on Monday, July 20, 2026.

But a majority of the state's citizens prefer it remain as it was, and not be unreasonably developed ("Most Utahns want Trump’s cuts to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase reversed, survey finds," Salt Lake Tribune), which is the agenda of the State Government and the Utah Congressional Delegation. 

For example Utah's Senators were the leaders in the successful fight to reverse BLM's designation of conservation as a worthy use of public land under their purview, "Independent Petroleum Association of America backs Trump administration rollback of BLM public lands rule," World Oil, "Mining Claims Staked on Land That Trump Cut From Monuments," NYT).

10.  State Public Lands.  I haven't yet read The Other Public Lands: Preservation, Extraction, and Politics on the Fifty States' Natural Resource Lands by Steven Davis. It seems an essential book to understand the state side of public lands policy, the good and the bad.

Professor Davis also wrote In Defense of Public Lands: The Case against Privatization and Transfer, which these days is worth a read too.  We can call what the Trump Administration is doing as creeping privatization, if not in form, substance, where the private sector receives prioritized access with the aim of monetization of public lands for resource extraction, harmful recreation (off road vehicles), and monetization of park lands in surreptitious ways.

11.  City Public Lands.  Some cities are distinguishing between parks and other types of spaces in their organization of public parks agencies. 

For example, Salt Lake City's Department of Public Lands has seven separate units: planning, parks, trails and natural lands, urban forestry, recreation, the Salt Lake City Cemetery, and golf courses.

Hoover Dam, Nevada.  It turns out all the dams and hydroelectricity generation created in the 1930s became essential to powering US war production in Southern California and the Pacific Northwest.

12.  Are public waters "public lands"?  Meanwhile Bureau of Reclamation dams at Lake Powell and Lake Mead are reaching historic lows, which threatens their ability to generate electricity ("Lake Powell Hits Record Low and Lake Mead Could Fall Nearly 40 Feet, Straining Water for 40 Million," MedicalDaily).

Mid tier universities may be in more trouble than I realized

The university campus in Syracuse, N.Y. TED SHAFFREY/AP

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on Syracuse University ("Why Syracuse Can’t Attract the Students It Needs to Pay the Bills"). 

In general, colleges these days are facing the demographic cliff of fewer students.  

That's especially affected small private colleges with high tuitions.  This has been a particular issue in New England, which the Boston Globe has covered in depth, to the point that they've just started a weekly newsletter on the topic.  This is the first edition, "These Mass. colleges’ finances are full of red flags."  From the article:

More than two dozen colleges in New England have closed since 2015, and almost all of them enrolled new students shortly before announcing their closures. Parents and faculty members from shuttered campuses have told me about the supposed reassurances they received from school administrators before the end came.

Colleges are required to post annual financial statements online, so one might think that it would be easy enough to identify a school in trouble. I am here to tell you that it is not so easy.

A college’s net assets may increase from one year to the next, but that does not necessarily mean all is well. On the other hand, a one-time operating deficit is not necessarily a crisis. Prospective students and their families do not have the time and the know-how to pore over institutional finances during the already complicated and stressful process of applying to college.

And that can have disproportionately negative impact on cities ("Small college economic issues threaten their ability to function as a community asset"), like the closure of in Albany, or Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, or the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

This blog entry started a few years ago, wrt the closure or merger of arts-related colleges ("Revisiting entries: Should community culture master plans include elements on higher education arts programs?,").  But the point should be extended to master planning more generally, to be aware of the economic health of institutions in your community, with a plan to act if circumstances become negative.

While most cities require colleges to do and update master plans, usually on a ten year cycle, that's more about building, not reaping more economic value from them, which aligns with my point that DC in particular doesn't do a very good job leveraging the economic development potential of universities.  

-- "Better leveraging higher education institutions in cities and counties: Greensboro; Spokane; Mesa; Phoenix; Montgomery County, Maryland; Washington, DC" (2016)
-- "HBCUs and the city: Relocating Cheyney University to Philadelphia" (2021)
-- "The other George Miller idea: creating multi-college innovation centers in (cities) Philadelphia | Creating public library-college education centers as revitalization initiatives" (2021)
-- "Freeman Hrabowski and 'urban universities" (2021)
-- "Universities as elements of urban/downtown revitalization: the Portland State story and more" (2014)
-- "President of Washington State University dies: fostered development of the "University District" adjacent to Downtown Spokane" (2015)

-- "John Fry, president of Drexel University, and universities and cities" (2022) -- since his tenure conditions for DU have deteriorated, now he's the president of Temple University, which has its own problems

-- "Morgan State University should move their architecture and planning school to Downtown/Station North Arts District" (2014)

But those aren't the only schools at risk.  In Michigan, the three top tier universities, Michigan, Michigan State, and the urban Wayne State University in Detroit continue to maintain or add enrollments ("UM Ann Arbor remains largest university in state as competition to get in intensifies." Detroit News), while the other state schools are losing enrollment ("Michigan college enrollment rate slips, despite $1B in state scholarships," Bridge Michigan), and smaller colleges are closing.

• It's accentuated by the anti-immigrant focus by the Trump Administration, which has resulted in a 10% across the board reduction in international student enrollment with disproportionate impact on some schools more than others
• Foreign students mostly pay full tuition, so the economic impact is greater than the number of students.
• Northern colleges are losing students to southern colleges
• Limits on the total amount of money that can be lent in federal student loan programs

The new dorms at Michigan look like they could be from the 1930s, another period of large growth for the university and the construction of multiple dormitories.  Architect: Robert A.M. Stern and Associates (RAMSA).

Meanwhile the Ivies and the premier public universities do well, grabbing more students.  Many like the University of Michigan, are opening new dorms ("Take a look inside University of Michigan’s new Wolverine Village," Detroit Free Press).

Urban design initiative.  In 2017 I mentioned an interesting initiative by Syracuse University in the context of the Purple Line series, about how they were investing in making better urban design and other connections between the campus and the core city.  Apparently, it hasn't been enough.

From the 2017 entry:

The Syracuse Connective Corridor is a wide-scale approach on improving the connections between the campus of Syracuse University and the city, while simultaneously emphasizing sub-districts within the city center ("Is Syracuse's Connective Corridor work transforming downtown?" and "Syracuse's Connective Corridor: 2 miles long, $47 million better," Syracuse Post-Standard; "The Connective Corridor – a message from our Publisher," Syracuse New Times).

Although there is some criticism that the project is shaped more to benefit the university, which is the primary funder.

The description of the Connective Corridor in promotional materials sums up the elements that comprise a "Signature Street" or sustainable mobility district:

The Connective Corridor is a collaboration between Syracuse University, the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County to connect University Hill with downtown Syracuse. The project includes new streetscapes to make the city more pedestrian and bike-friendly, a free public transportation system with smart bus technology, a network of green infrastructure, public art, wayfinding systems, façade improvements and innovative illumination projects that highlight Syracuse’s beautiful historic buildings and public spaces. The Corridor also connects the city’s vibrant arts and cultural district, as well as downtown dining and the great local food scene. Take the bus, walk or ride your bike...

Part of the Connective Corridor.  The Sheraton Hotel next to campus became a student residence hall. Debra Millet/Alamy

What the WSJ says about Syracuse.  Besides the problems of declining college aged students and the fall off of international student enrollment,  

• It's not an Ivy League school and they can't market themselves like they are
• It's got a lot of debt from their construction program, which besides replacing older buildings less well equipped for today's needs, built more besides, and the enrollment and research funding hasn't kept up (West Virginia University overbuilt too, leading to major problems ("West Virginia University makes wide-ranging cuts to academic programs and faculty," AP)
• The past history of having good football and basketball teams is old news.  As the teams flail, the  marketing value of (un)successful sports teams has diminished 
• Winter weather is not a draw
• Decline in federal research funding due to the Trump Administration's hatred of knowledge
• That its urban peers--NYU, Boston University, Northeastern University--are doing better and have double the number of students paying full tuition
• They have cut low enrollment academic programs
• Still have many highly rated programs
• the safety rating of bonds issued by the university is okay but declining
• Need to improve recruitment, post-admissions communications, and financial aid offers to increase enrollment yield, to get more students who've been admitted to actually enroll

From the article:

Syracuse’s competitors can concentrate their financial-aid budgets on a smaller percentage of students, while Syracuse has to spread its allotment over a broader pool. That means that for students who get some sort of financial aid, Syracuse costs thousands more than its competitors.

Moderately selective private colleges are caught in the middle. They aren’t elite enough to dictate the market, and they attract a student-body that is still concerned about the price tag, said Robert Kelchen, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who specializes in education finances.

“The stream of students willing to pay something closer to full price is drying up,” Kelchen said. “Even if they’re not terribly concerned about how much it costs, they know that they can shop around and get a better deal.”

Boston Globe indicators.  The paper published an article, "Worried your college could close? Higher ed watchers say to look for these warning signs," listing the factors that students and parents (and communities) should look out for in assessing the financial stability of a college.

1. Low enrollment.  Small endowment.
2. Financial reports don't make sense for an institution that claims to be stable.
3. The college has a plan but no long term strategy.
4. The campus looks empty or shabby.
5. Cuts are continuous.
6. Making decisions and creating initiatives out of desperation.
7. Land is for sale
8. Financial aid awards are especially generous
9. Recruitment is over-eager.

Cities need to pay attention and monitor the health of higher education institutions.  To reiterate the point above, yes, cultural master plans should include an element on higher education programs in the arts.  But city economic planning should monitor the economic health of higher education institutions more closely as well.

Land redevelopment/How to revivify institutional campuses?  This is especially important because colleges tend to have a large contiguous piece of land that is best suited for institutional use, but it's much harder to find appropriate users, and redevelopment is likely necessary.  And just as hard because it requires zoning changes, community input, etc.

-- Town–Gown Collaboration in Land Use and Development, Lincoln Land Institute

Marygrove University in Detroit dissolved, but the Kresge Foundation stepped in to assist in transitioning from a college campus to a community nonprofit campus ("Interesting community initiative in Detroit: Marygrove Conservancy," "Big Plan on Campus: At a Shuttered Detroit College, a Community Development Experiment Takes Root," Lincoln Land Institute).  Most communities won't have that as an option.

In Albany, New York, the county created the Pine Hills Land Authority to buy and redevelop the College of Saint Rose campus.  But at 23 acres, it isn't a hugely difficult problem, and many of the campus blocks are integrated into the city.

The Birmingham-Southern College campus was purchased by the federal government and is now an training center for the US Coast Guard.

In Massachusetts, Hampshire College is dissolving and private equity gave the school a loan to finish its last semester and work towards dissolution ("A Boston-based LLC is lending Hampshire College $29.5m to finish the fall semester — and plan for what comes next," Boston Globe).  PE probably then gets the campus.  The campus is about 1.3 square miles.

Cy pres.  Cy pres is a legal doctrine where the State AG has a say in how assets are distributed, and the nonprofit uses preserved when a nonprofit institution closes ("When governments sell land always put in clawback provisions").  

This has been a particular issue with the dissolution of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia ("University of the Arts’ $77 million endowment remains mired in court proceedings two years after the school closed," Philadelphia Inquirer) and also in Philadelphia, how Drexel University has taken over troubled cultural institutions but now finds it doesn't have enough money to improve facilities and or maintain these programs ("Closing a 200-year-old institution will wound both the city and science," Philadelphia Inquirer).

WSJ says Seattle and DC buck the trend and are retaining families

 The Wall Street Journal--the best way to access it is through your local library system, which probably provides access, my registration evaders no longer really work on it--writes in "Seattle and D.C. Are Bucking the Trend by Attracting Families With Kids" that most cities are losing families but not DC and Seattle.

This family lives in DC's Mount Pleasant neighborhood--which is great.  And the daughter goes to the local Spanish-English immersion elementary school.

More households with six figure salaries are staying as they add children.

It comes down to amenities, schooling options--DC has a plethora of charter schools plus Pre-K education/child care for 3-5 year olds), cheaper housing compared to the suburbs--sadly we can thank Trump's evisceration of the federal workforce and the impact on the DC housing market ("A housing market on the precipice: New insights from the DMV Monitor," Brookings, "Did DOGE Cripple Northern Virginia’s Housing Market?," Arlington Magazine) and incomes.  

Interestingly, both cities are losing population of lower income families.  But this makes sense economically, as the cities are increasingly expensive, and job income growth and job growth are slowing as the effects of the Trump economy trickle throughout DC's microeconomy.

Rare example of a corporate return to the city: Sherwin-Williams and Cleveland

So reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "The return of Sherwin-Williams’ workers may revive downtown Cleveland — but not without resistance."

Companies did move back to the city.  While there was a trend of corporations that had moved to the suburbs moving back to the city--examples like Compuware and Rocket Mortgage in Detroit, and Panasonic to Newark, it wasn't universal.

I had hoped DC had a shot with this, and companies like AES, Nestle, and Hilton, but it wasn't to be.  

Remember, MCI was based in DC for a long time, mostly because of accessibility to its regulator, the FCC, and all the cases it brought to open long distance telecommunications to competition.

-- "Could bringing premier regionally headquartered business enterprises to the Pennsylvania Avenue Corridor be key to its renewal and revitalization?" (2015)
-- "Do tax incentives pay off? : Illinois; Tennessee; Rosslyn + "The Airport Access Factor"" (2017)

And corporations left legacy cities for the South.  Plenty of corporations moved out of legacy regions altogether to the South, especially Atlanta and Texas ("Next Phase of Clustering of Business away from the Midwest"). 

For example, while Panasonic was moving to Newark ("A lesson that seeing is believing: Panasonic's new building in Newark, NJ as an example, positive and negative, in businesses coming back to the city center"), Mercedes-Benz moved their headquarters from New Jersey to Atlanta, leveraging the naming rights they've paid for the Atlanta Falcons football team.

Companies continue to leave smaller cities.  Like Caterpillar from Peoria to the Chicago suburbs and then to Texas ("Caterpillar to move headquarters to Texas, marking second major corporate departure from Illinois in 6 weeks," Chicago Tribune), and Winston-Salem ("Smaller cities lose out when it comes to business consolidation and headquarters relocation: WInston-Salem, North Carolina").  

A big concern is airport access and size, needing convenient connections to multiple places from a close by airport.  Plus, as manufacturing shifts South, eventually, so do companies 

Car versus transit accessibility.  Or companies choosing locations for branches, like State Farm in Dallas and Atlanta, they chose based on freeway access, unlike the quest by Amazon HQ2 made transit accessibility a major criterion ("Amazon's HQ2 Hunt Is a Transit Reckoning," Bloomberg) .

CEOs move to get away from progressive taxation and politics.  And corporations like those owned by Ken Griffin ("Ken Griffin poised to pay extra $1.4M in taxes for NYC properties thanks to Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax: report," New York Post) and Starbucks ("Is Starbucks breaking up with Seattle?," Seattle Times) continue the trend of companies moving out of cities where they believe the regulatory environment is unfavorable.  

Griffin doesn't want to pay extra tax on his $238 million condo in NYC, after leaving Chicago because of its crime ("Billionaire Ken Griffin says Citadel’s Chicago exodus was ‘not hard,’ cites crime, taxes," Fox").  Starbucks isn't happy with Seattle City Council's passage of an employment tax.

Corporate consolidation.  There is still the issue of corporate consolidation cutting businesses, like banks and railroads.

And aging buildings.  A counter-force to in city location is aging building stock.  As buildings age companies don't want to pay the high renovation cost, so they move to new facilities, often in the suburbs where the company can spread out, on a campus ("Dallas Is Booming—Except for Its Downtown," Wall Street Journal).  From the article:

This city is a hotbed for commercial property. The metro area’s population is booming and financial-services firms are flocking here, earning the area the sobriquet “Y’all Street.” Yet at its heart is one of the country’s worst-hit central business districts: Downtown Dallas.

Companies are abandoning this neighborhood and its aging office towers. They are heading to the Uptown district or the thriving suburbs, often over concerns about crime and homelessness. Left behind are defaulted loans, foreclosures and deeply discounted property sales.

Plus new buildings generally are outfitted with the kinds of amenities that younger employees seek ("10 Must-Have Commercial Building Amenities That Attract (and Keep) Top Tenants," Fooda).

Cleveland.  Has a new corporate headquarters with a worker mandate to work in the office every day.  The addition is a boon after the recent closure of the Downtown Heinen's Supermarket (" Farmers market replaces Heinen’s in Cleveland," Supermarket News).  But it comes with costs.

... Sherwin-Williams has opened its new roughly 1-million-square-foot headquarters near Public Square, requiring office employees to show up in person five days a week.

For the city, that is welcome news. The deal was written to protect jobs and taxes. And the return of so many workers has become something bigger: the spark city officials and business leaders hope will finally bring a pandemic-battered downtown back to life.

For many of those workers, however, it feels like a loss. The return-to-office mandate ended a hybrid arrangement many had built their lives around. They arranged child care, bought homes and reshaped their daily routines around working remotely — and now that flexibility is gone.

The result is a 36-story tower standing at the intersection of three competing interests: a company’s push for in-person collaboration, a city’s fight to bring downtown back to life and a workforce that had reorganized life around working from home.

In any case, in recent times, it's a win for legacy cities, and "the Rust Belt."

Where should cities focus their economic development resources?  However, some economists make the point that cities do better when building up and developing smaller businesses, than focusing on large corporations who may stay just a short time ("How U.S. Cities Lost the Economic Development Plot," CommonEdge).  I call this the difference between "building a local economy" and traditional "Economic Development."

I suppose I come down in the middle.  Some companies seem to be worth recruiting, like Amazon HQ2, although post covid it hasn't worked out as well.  High paying jobs, reasonable amounts of subsidy, secondary development, e.g., with Amazon HQ2, that's seeded a Virginia Tech campus.

But as pointed out in the aftermath of the closure of the Pfizer research lab in Ann Arbor, and the number of companies that developed out of it, that many small companies rather than one big one reduces risk for the local economy ("How the closure of a Pfizer research center in Ann Arbor, Michigan led to the development of a more robust and independent biotech sector").

Doubles and triples, especially in a stage of the US economy that is focused on smaller companies, rather than the big corporations of past decades.  E.g., big GE is now three smaller companies with others sold off.  Same with Honeywell.  Large corporations of the old days are smaller or non existent today.

Goldman Sachs is building a new campus for more than 5,000 employees in Dallas, its largest in the U.S. outside New York City. (Shelby Tauber/For The Washington Post)

This trend is furthered by how new technologies such as electrification of automobiles or AI make it easier for new entrants and harder for legacy companies ("Factors undergirding the decline of economic clusters").  

NYC under Mayor Bloomberg made a good move in funding the start of a new "technology and engineering higher education institution"--Cornell Tech--as a way for the city to stay relevant economically in the face of shrinkage of the financial industry among others ("Bankers are leaving Wall Street for ‘Y’all Street’," Washington Post).

Interesting story on the Encore Casino in Everett, Massachusetts, across the Mystic River from Boston

Photo: The Encore Boston Harbor casino was bathed in the warmth of the setting sun as it towered over the streets of Charlestown from its location in Everett. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff ("Encore was built to be a destination. It became something else," Boston Globe).

Casinos are promoted pretty much the same way.  Lots of permanent jobs.  Lots of tourism and visitors from other places spending their money.

The reality is that outside of Las Vegas, casinos mostly draw upon local residents and significant new streams of revenue aren't created.

From the article:

... “Encore” shimmering in gold script at its top like a $2.6 billion monument to the idea that everything in its glow, including the hardscrabble city of Everett, would be transformed.

That was the promise of owner Wynn Resorts, when it opened seven years ago. The casino would replace a contaminated industrial waterfront that had sat empty for a century, create thousands of union jobs, generate millions in tax revenue, and build a luxury destination that would bring visitors to a long-overlooked corner of Greater Boston to stay, eat, and, of course, gamble.

Encore has delivered spectacularly on several of those promises, but the sheer ambition of some of them also highlights how many things this project was expected to be.

A dockmaster at Encore Boston Harbor helped to tie off the boat in 2019. Customers can take a free water taxi from Boston to Encore every 30 minutes.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/David L Ryan, Globe Staff

Revenue at Encore has remained relatively stable over the past two years, roughly around $210 million a quarter. But it’s becoming less profitable: Once around $62 million to $63 million a quarter two years ago, adjusted operating profit declined to $50.5 million in the first quarter of this year, before rebounding somewhat to $56.1 million in the second. Still, Encore posted the largest decline in profit among all Wynn properties in the second quarter.

After winning a hotly contested license to build Greater Boston’s only casino in 2014, Wynn executives promised a destination that would attract travelers from around the world, with high-quality dining and nightlife and entertainment “unlike anything the region has ever seen.” It wasn’t just marketing talk; it’s partly why they prevailed, with state gaming officials weighing the broader boost it would bring to the region’s economy.

Today, Encore is indeed lavish, if largely self-contained. It has become a major regional casino. But has it become the destination it was supposed to be? That might depend on where you look.

Casinos are businesses that don't want to share customers.  This last point is key.  Casinos are built to keep their patrons inside as long as possible.  They want 100% of the consumer spend.  They don't want to share customers with other businesses.  Therefore such facilities aren't so great at building up an area beyond the four walls of the building.

Just like stadiums and arenas (except in Las Vegas--"5 years later, Raiders in Las Vegas ‘a home run for the NFL’," Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Japanese tourists going to LA to see Shohei Otani--"The Shohei Ohtani Economy: A two-mile ride to Dodger Stadium, for $85," Los Angeles Times), most customers are local, and the money they spend ends up being shifted from other forms of entertainment.  It's not new spending.

But if high-rollers and tourists have their place, most of Encore’s players are local, according to former executives. For all of Wynn’s ambitions to create an international destination, its bread-and-butter clientele — as is the case with most casinos outside of Las Vegas — consists largely of people who can drive there.

“It’s a place for middle-class people to have an upper-class experience,” said Michele Baker, 58, of Brookline, who often turns to Encore’s posh hotel rooms for a staycation.

... “Why would you go to Everett” for those things when Boston already has them, said Raymond Pineault, the former president of Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino. “I don’t know what their expectations were, but I wouldn’t say it’s the international destination they were hoping for. It’s a nice regional casino.”

Most of the time, new casinos have competition.

And Encore faces tough competition: Long-established tribal casinos in Connecticut with so many amenities that gambling feels almost like an afterthought. New casinos in New Hampshire. Two others in Rhode Island. And the explosion of sports betting, which generated nearly $755 million of gross gaming revenue in Massachusetts in 2025.

In-city casinos usually lack the amenities of a destination like a city with multiple casinos (Las Vegas) or a resort.

But unlike Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — not to mention Las Vegas casinos — Encore lacks the sort of amenities that draw non-gamblers and multiday visitors. With little available land, there’s no golf course, pool, or shopping mall. Nor is there a theater or arena for major concerts or big comedians to perform; state law, designed to protect nearby concert venues, prohibits Encore from operating on-site entertainment facilities of between 1,000 and 3,500 seats.

As for retail, options are few: a gift shop called “The Drugstore,” a Wynn women’s clothing boutique, and a watch store. At least one storefront is empty and available on the ground floor.

Photo: John Tlumacki, Boston Globe.

Broader revitalization is a slow process.  As I write elsewhere with sports, and it's just as true with casinos and resorts, if you want broader development you need a plan ("Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities").  And some places, whether or not you have a plan, might not have the right preconditions to improve.

But, the broader transformation of Everett remains a work in progress. Encore has helped spur development beyond its campus, including the proposed New England Revolution soccer stadium across the street. But much of the surrounding area remains industrial. Other projects are still in the works.

... “Encore needs to evolve into becoming much more of an all-around Boston-area entertainment resort,” said John Boyd, principal of gaming consulting firm The Boyd Company. “Rather than: just casino plus restaurants plus hotel.”

In other words, to truly succeed, it needs to become a regional destination. When asked how that’s going, a company spokesman offered a pointedly local answer: Wynn “is proud to call Everett home.”

A charter bus for Encore Boston Harbor picked up passengers on Essex Street, a block from Chinatown, in February. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Asians drive casino revenues on the East Coast.  Earlier this year, the Globe ran a great series about the impact of gaming and the Encore Casino on the Asian community ("Casinos in Massachusetts/New England deliberately target Asians").