A planning process done right | NYC to build affordable housing on a city parking lot & points about DC and Montgomery County

 A lot of advocates argue that the primary use for ersatz city property that is being sold off should be for affordable housing.  In most places, that doesn't happen.  Land is expensive.  Cities want a lot of money for the property.  The higher the price, the fewer number of affordable units.  And cities don't always do a good job of ensuring the public element of such projects stays good.

For example, NYC is building a lot of housing on what were single story libraries.  The projects that have been built all come with great libraries on the ground floor ("New library/community space + 100% affordable housing mixed use building in New York City").

West End Library, DC.  By contrast, when DC sold off the West End Library site it got a new library and an adjoining cafe, but the library profile is seriously constrained and IMO wasn't designed well or its use of space is encumbered by the housing around it ("West End Deals," and a section within "National Libraries Week and a libraries update").

A Request for Proposals is not a plan.  When cities aim to sell off properties, they often release an RFP, a request for proposals.  Usually the RFP doesn't have good guidance on what the city/citizens believe would be the best use for the property.  Sure, sometimes public engagement processes don't generate good recommendations.  But the city is at the mercy of whether or not "good developers" participate and submit "good proposals" that include public benefits.

Many of the RFPs for such properties in DC have left me dissatisfied, although some still turn out "well" despite the opportunity costs, like the Walter Reed Hospital site ("Nice looking five story brick apartment building, Parks at Walter Reed development, Washington, DC").  Most languish for years.

Kennedy School, Portland.  But examples like the re-creation of Kennedy School in Portland into a bed and breakfast, brewpub, and event space came about because of a solid pre-RFP planning process ("One way to encourage community input into development planning").  

As I say, "an RFP isn't a plan, a plan is a plan."  

I think about this a lot, when most city property sell offs end up with not very creative results. Or institutional property sales, like the various shuttered Catholic facilities in the Brookland neighborhood of DC.

Portland wanted and got a creative result ("Vision and Versatility: The Story of McMenamins," Spirited Magazine, "Preservation Brotherhood," Chicago Tribune, 2004).  

There's a bar, hotel rooms, an outdoor spa, the gym is a cinema and entertainment space, and the facilities are heavily used by nearby residents separately from tourists.

The McMenamin Group that got the property went on to use the same model on difficult to rehabilitate properties throughout the Pacific Northwest, maximizing the civic benefit far beyond Portland.

NYC parking lot conversion.  New York City is doing that with a parking lot for a police precinct.  

It's a small lot, about 0.25 acres, 11,540 s.f.  The community wanted affordable housing there, and a public engagement process outlined what they wanted (324 E. 5th Street: Community Visioning Report, NYC).

The new building will be modern in design but respectful of the historic architecture style and building materials that predominate the neighborhood.

They're jamming a lot into it, 130 units in a tall building.  From the Crain's New York Business article, "City to turn East Village NYPD parking lot into affordable housing":

The development will include community space, a senior adult daycare with multigenerational programming, landscaped terraces, green roofs, an all-electric building system and replacement parking. Housing Works will provide on-site supportive services for residents. Additionally, 30% of the Aurea’s roughly 130 units will be reserved for formerly homeless New Yorkers.

That's an excellent outcome.  And it's because the city isn't charging at all for the land, in return for the public benefit of affordable housing.

Chevy Chase DC.  To be fair to DC, maybe they are learning.  After a lot of controversy and push back by residents ("Opposition to affordable housing in Chevy Chase, DC"), a similar project in the Upper NW neighborhood of Chevy Chase will come with 177 units of housing, with about 1/3 deeply affordable, with a brand new library and community center on the ground floor, retail, public spaces, and underground parking (City press release, Library press release).

Chevy Chase Maryland.  Interestingly, Montgomery County has a similar opportunity in their side of the neighborhood with a similar property.  The County Council wants a mixed use project with a new library and a school, the term limited County Executive doesn't.  It will be interesting to see what happens after this November's election.  

That County Executive ran for Council at large and was (re)elected--he was on Council before getting elected to County Executive.  

He will be somewhat of a wrench in plans to do affordable housing.  He thinks the County is doing fine, despite falling further behind in comparison to suburban counties in Northern Virginia--the county doesn't have the same level of business formation or large businesses, and isn't attracting as many new residents ("The East-West Divide | DC area regional economic development: anchors and where they are placed matter + airports | But military spending matters the most," "East County, Montgomery County, Maryland: Council redistricting spurs ideas for revitalization").

The coming of the Purple Line is the cover story for the June 2026 issue of Mass Transit Magazine ("The MDOT MTA Purple Line: Nearly Two Decades in the Making").  Although they have the timeline way wrong.  I sent them a letter but got no response.

Montgomery County has renewed opportunity because of the Purple Line.  Interestingly, with the addition of the Purple Line light rail, an east-west line from Bethesda to New Carrollton, Montgomery County has some great opportunities to reposition.  

-- "Setting the stage for the Purple Line light rail line to be an overwhelming success: Part 1 | simultaneously introduce improvements to other elements of the transit network" (2017)
-- "Part 2 |   the program (macro changes)"
-- "Part 3 |   influences"
-- "Part 6 |  Creating a transportation development authority in Montgomery and Prince George's County to effectuate placemaking, retail development, and housing programs in association with the Purple Line"
-- "Part 7 | Using the Purple Line to rebrand Montgomery and Prince George's Counties as Design Forward"
-- "Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network" (2019)

I didn't get good photos, but I did see the Purple Line under construction on University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue on my recent trip to DC, and I was amazed.  It's really happening.

According to the Mass Transit article, it should open in December 2027, "only" 5 years late.  For a time there was talk it would be 2028.  I guess they are pushing hard.

Wikipedia photo of PL construction at the University of Maryland.

Silver Spring.  I wrote a whole series on Silver Spring, inspired by a query from blog reader Ed Drozd.   I never suggested it, but similar programs could be devised for Bethesda, Rockville, and Wheaton.

-- PL #5: Creating a Silver Spring "Sustainable Mobility District" (2017)
- Part 1: Setting the stage
- Part 2: Program items 1- 9
- Part 3: Program items 10-18
- Part 4: Conclusion
- Map for the Silver Spring Sustainable Mobility District
- (Big Hairy) Projects Action Plan(s) as an element of Comprehensive/Master Plans
- Creating the Silver Spring/Montgomery County Arena and Recreation Center
-- "Making "Downtown Silver Spring" a true open air shopping district by adding department stores" (2018)

I did make a related point about Long Branch.

-- "Long Branch, Montgomery County: Main Street manager job | Purple Line" (2026)

Five more items I'd add to a Montgomery County "transportation" agenda, which would have great ROI for economic development more generally, would be:

1. extending the West leg of the Red Line from Shady Grove at least three stations to Gaithersburg and Germantown
2. making the MARC Brunswick rail line bi-directional during the day -- this is in the supplemental piece from 2019
3. including an infill station in North Bethesda
4. a Separated Yellow Line Metrorail either up Georgia Avenue or out New Hampshire Avenue from Fort Totten Metrorail Station could serve more parts of Montgomery County, even towards the border with Howard County
5. push for beginning planning to extend the Purple Line from Bethesda to Tysons.

Parking, parking, parking -- Chicago | A rare opportunity to reverse a really bad decision

Parking meter sign in Chicago.

In the pre Trump days the line was that "social security is the third rail of politics," that you try to mess with it you get burned.  Locally, I joke the issue is parking.

Chicago has lots of structural deficit issues, primarily a massive pension liability, and over the years the young Daley Administration in particular the choice as to employ stratagems to fix massive budget deficits. 

The biggest was to sell off, well lease off, parking meters for 99 years.  The contract is onerous, requiring the city to pay the concessionaire for closed streets, like for festivals, or taking out parking spaces for bike share stations or to add to the public space.  From the Bloomberg article "Morgan Stanley’s $2.5 Billion Parking-Meter Sale Roils Chicago Council":

For almost two decades, Chicago has been stewing over a $1.15 billion deal to Chicago Parking Meters, LLC Selected as Winning Bidder for the 36,000 parking meters to an investor group led by Morgan Stanley. Now, with the meters set to change hands, the city council is seizing on an opening to push back.

The original purchasers have already made their money back and then some, and look to sell of the next 57 years of the concession for $2.53 billion.  Mayor Johnson put in a bid to buy it back, but for some reason he backed off ("Mayor Johnson finally explains his decision to bid $3.2B for parking meters before walking away," Chicago Sun-Times).

The City Council has to approve the transfer, and they are looking for concessions.  Meanwhile,  Alderman Jason Ervin proposed the creation of a public infrastructure trust/bank funded by the city's pension funds, to buy back the contract and to make other public infrastructure investments ("We should vote no on the parking meter transfer for the sake of a better investment policy," Chicago Tribune).

That's actually a good idea.  

North Dakota's State Bank ("The ‘Secret Sauce’?: Understanding the Success of the State Bank Of North Dakota," Government Finance Research Center, UIC) and the Quebec Pension Fund, CDPQ--Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, have been successful at intra-state/province investment.  

The pension fund is building the REM transit system in Montreal--but they got a super sweet deal from the Province that's as outrageous as the concessions made on the original parking contract in Chicago.

The REM in Montreal launched its second section earlier this year.  People really ride it.

I worry some about these kinds of set ups because while they need accountability and transparency mechanisms, at the same time there needs to be a hard wall against political meddling.  

E.g., you don't want Aldermen able to force through loans, the way they have veto power over development within their wards?  

Or, when the US Government gave a massive loan to GM during the Great Financial Crisis, local dealers under threat from consolidation called their Congressional representatives to lobby to keep their franchise.  Etc.

Chicago's track record on infrastructure doesn't make me hopeful they can make the turn from a corrupt orientation to an above board infrastructure bank, but I'm hopeful.  E.g., when Norway created its Sovereign Investment Fund, it drew upon the experience with Mideastern states, oil revenues, and investments with the aim of yielding real investment rather than wasting the money ("Stop Calling All Wealth Funds Sovereign: Father of Norway’s Fund," Bloomberg).

Maybe Chicago should hire people from Norway to run their bank...

To me, they shouldn't have sold off the parking meter concession to begin with.  And it's rare to be given the opportunity to reverse such a bad decision.

California’s first ADU condo sale offers another path to homeownership

Backdoor Revolution: The Definitive Guide to ADU Development

I have been interested in ADUs for years ("DC and accessory dwelling units," "There are plenty of lots capable of accessory dwelling units in Upper Northwest," "Will carriage houses destroy city life as we know it?."  

And for a time did alley tours in Greater Capitol Hill.

Article from the Orange County Register.  From the article:

San Jose is home to the first accessory dwelling unit sold as a separately owned condo in California, city officials said, setting a potential template for a more affordable path to homeownership. But a lengthy rollout raises questions about whether the model can become a scalable solution to the state’s housing crisis — the sale comes more than two years after the state made such transactions possible.

The 749-square-foot, two-bedroom ADU on Josefina Street near downtown closed last month for $530,000. That’s about a quarter of Santa Clara County’s eye-popping $2.1 million median single-family home price in May, according to the California Association of Realtors. Real estate brokerage Redfin last month listed San Jose among the 10 most expensive U.S. housing markets, based on the share of median income needed to afford to buy a home.

ADUs, also known as in-law units or granny flats, typically have up to 1,200 square feet of living space and must include a kitchen sink, cooking appliance and separate bathroom.

The sale was made possible by a state law passed in 2023, Assembly Bill 1033, which allows homeowners to convert ADUs into condos and sell them separately from the main property, rather than just renting them out. Under the law, ADU condos come with their own property tax bills, but require an HOA agreement with the primary homeowner for common elements, such as roofs or driveways.

Historicity.  I have been intrigued by alleys, historic carriage houses, and ADUs for a long time.  First in terms of historicity.   

• DC Historic Alleys Building Survey, DC Historic Preservation Office
• "The American Alley, Part 1: A Hidden Resource," "The American Alley, Part 2: Origins of the American Alley," "The American Alley, Part 3: The End of the American Alley," "The American Alley, Part 4: Rediscovering the Forgotten Human Scale," Strong Towns/Resilience
• "History: Capitol Hill Alley Dwellings," Hill Rag

• and how on some properties there are historic carriage buildings that have been converted from horse stables to houses.  These are on regular house lots.  
• There are also some carriage houses on their own lots separate from a street facing lot, developed when the interior of large blocks were "programmed" with buildings separate from the street--often for "industrial uses" like stables, machining, storage, drayage, etc., 
• I learned from a guy I talked to once on a rear alley off of H Street NE who said that at the time (before DC liberalized ADU laws) it was legal for these buildings to have a "caretaker" apartment
• Interior blocks often were developed with housing to use up the space, make it profitable, and  sometimes as a way to provide mixed income housing--for servants, lower income people, etc.  
• (Later, instead of dealing with interior blocks, developers created intervening streets, such as Acker Place, Lexington Place, Morris Place, Morton Place, and Orleans Place between 6th and 7th Streets NE, Parker Street NE by Union Station, or blocks of rowhouses west of 5th Street NW in Manor Park like Quackenbos Street NW and Quintana Place NW)
• President's wife Ellen Wilson's claim to DC fame was her work to rid blocks of this interior  housing, probably because often the people settled there were African-Americans.

• Although some sections remained, like Millers Court NE and Brown's Court SE or on Capitol Hill and became models for building similar housing later 
• And because in upper NW, such as the lots east of 4th Street in Manor Park, the deep lots often have free standing garages or nothing, and could accommodate an ADU.  Our lot could, which I'd like to take advantage of some time.
• Transit access is key.  But I think it's best to focus ADU development within walking distance to a Metrorail station, to reduce the demand for driving.  Our house in Manor Park is about three quarters of a mile from Takoma Metrorail Station.

Affordable Housing.  Second in terms of the idea of adding "missing middle housing" and affordable housing. Missing middle housing is smaller types of housing vis a vis "normal sized" single family attached and detached houses.  In DC, it's not missing, it's just very expensive because all housing in DC is expensive.  And because there isn't a lot of it.  As noted above, it's mostly on interiors of blocks, and as a product of its time, pre-1900.

A very small house on Millers Court NE rents for $4,500 per month.  Middle housing indeed!

But the people who can afford to build an ADU might not necessarily want to provide AH.  According to a study in Greater Los Angeles ("The dark side of California’s backyard ADU boom: How much do they ease the housing shortage," LA Times):

He found that “ADU prevalence correlates with lower-income, renter-occupied, and younger households, denser populations, and areas with higher concentrations of non-white residents and registered Democrats.”

This type of housing is a form of what's being called "missing middle housing."  

In some weak markets like a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, ADUs are promoted to support multi-generational living and wealth generation through improving the value of a property by adding a unit, or to have a second income stream from the property to pay the mortgage ("Alley Flat Initiative fits small, green homes into unexpected places," CultureMap Austin, Alley Flat Initiative, Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation). 

Some photos.

Parker Street NE -- the houses are narrow but still expensive because of the location.

Quintana Place NW -- the houses are more colonial, Tudor and not contiguous but in units of two because the National Capital Planning Commission ruled  sometime in the 1920s that rowhouses couldn't be contiguous (seen as an anti-African American policy decision)

Lexington Place NE -- the Queen Anne rowhouse style typified by the houses on Parker Street NE started to be succeeded by a more Craftsman form, often called Wardman style after the developer.  This transition started around 1907. ("What's in a Wardman? A Short Overview of DC's Most Prevalent Architecural Style," DC Urban Turf).

Millers Court SE is super well situated.  A block from the Supreme Court.  Two blocks from the Capitol.

Third, I've wanted to put one on our lot.  But ADUs aren't as cheap to build as people say.

1.  everyone says "oh, they're cheaper because you don't have to buy the land."
2. That's a little true, but the cost of permitting and new construction and financing is still high, over $250/s.f.
3. Plus the cost of installing electricity and water/sewage (and maybe gas).
4. They are hard to finance, although you can do it through a home equity loan I suppose.  And then the rents can't be super cheap because you have to pay off the cost of construction plus the various annual costs.

This is a garage on the rear of a lot on the 4400 block of River Road NW in DC.  It's a similar configuration to our lot in Manor Park.

The amounts of money cities offer to encourage ADU construction aren't very much and usually require renting out at less than market rates.

To facilitate this "the city" or nonprofit should create an ADU clearinghouse working with property owners to finance and build, and then with property owners and renters to facilitate rentals in a systematic way.

CDCs to build and finance at scale.  Gosh a good 12+ years ago I suggested the creation of a community development corporation that would operate city wide doing this.  Ideally, on our block you could build as many as 32 ADUs, they could go in on a block, with a city incentive too, and try to get multiple property owners to do it at the same time, to cut costs.

A number of firms do this now in the Midwest, such as ADU America, and in the Pacific Northwest and California (ADU Resource Center).

Pattern Books to make building ADUs easier.  Some cities have also created ADU pattern books to facilitate permitting and lower cost construction.  Often they include more modern buildings which don't appeal to me.  I prefer that ADUs match the prevailing neighborhood architectural style be it Queen Anne or Craftsman rowhouse, Colonial, etc.

-- ADU D.C. Homeowner’s Manual, Coalition for Smarter Growth

-- Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual (not on ADUs, but historic rowhouses, providing indirect guidance for how to do pre 1914 style ADUs)

-- A Pattern Book for Founders’ Place Neighborhood, Muscogee, Oklahoma, Oklahoma University-Tulsa Urban Design Studio

-- Del Ray Neighborhood Residential Pattern Book, Alexandria, Virginia

-- Accessory Dwelling Unit Guidebook, Boston Planning Department

-- A Pattern Book for Neighborly Houses, Habitat for Humanity, (I like the points about context sensitive development, it's not so much about ADUs)

-- ADU Pattern Book for Mid-Century Homes, Family Housing Fund

-- Building an ADU, Salt Lake City

-- ADU Pattern Book, MB Architecture

-- Changing Lanes: Laneway Suites in Toronto

Problems:  Some people don't want to share.  Granny flats/Yay or Nay.  Originally, were called "granny flats," with the idea that downsizing parents would relocate to an ancillary dwelling on their children's property

But some people don't want to share their lots.  "An Honest Conversation About Toronto Laneway Houses," Toronto Realty Blog.  From the article:

But why do people disagree on laneway housing? And what issues are at the forefront of the discussions? “An honest conversation,” i.s what I called this in today’s blog title, and that’s what I’m aiming for because I feel like the discussion about laneway housing in Toronto is merely getting started. 

 A client of mine remarked last weekend, “I have no problem if somebody else wants to build a laneway home on our street. But I don’t think I’d take one if it were free. I don’t want somebody living in my backyard with a window that looks out to where my kids play, and I don’t want to park my car under their living room.”

The LA Times has a series of articles on ADUs, and many involve multi-generational families, so sharing the lot isn't an issue.  And sometimes it's not for granny, but for the adult children. ("She couldn’t afford L.A. rent after law school. Her parents’ ADU came to the rescue").  

There are many in the Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach.  We stayed in one as an airbnb.  A less than one mile walk to the beach...

For others, it's an ancillary studio not to be rented out ("Thanks to a tiny ADU, an L.A. home transforms into a stunning art gallery and studio," "Surprising ADU with tricked-out garage, rooftop deck matches family’s playfulness").  This is a big issue now with work from home.

But for unrelated people, if they aren't into the idea of having renters, an ADU may not be appealing.

Problems:  Financing.  It's still difficult to get traditional financing.  And adding an ADU if you have a mortgage, you have to notify the lender. ("Should I take a bridge loan to build an ADU?," LA Times); 

Problems:  Parking.  DC requires that building an ADU doesn't reduce parking on the lot.  In an area like Manor Park, this is dumb because there is plenty of street parking.  Less so in rowhouse neighborhoods in the core.  Basically, people can create "parking pads" that double as patios. Also see "A Koreatown parking protest: Tenants stage sit-in to protest loss of parking to make way for ADUs," LA Times.

Green Alley initiatives.  Separately, a number of cities are pursuing "green alley" initiatives where they are focusing on plantings, stormwater capture, and sometimes placemaking (" In Miles of Alleys, Chicago Finds Its Next Environmental Frontier," New York Times, "To Battle Floods, Cities Revive Their Long-Forgotten Alleyways,"JSTOR, "Cities Give Alleys New Life," Governing).  

-- Chicago Green Alley Handbook

In the early 2000s I read an article in (I think) Southern Living about Calder Loth, then State Architectural Historian for Virginia, and his initiative planting flowers in his alley in the Fan District ("The Self-Taught Gardener: Division Street," Berkshire Edge).

Alley repaving.  DC had a green alleys program but it never did much.  

Separately the Department of Transportation created a program still in operation that actively repaves alleys, many of which were in disrepair, with a polyglot of materials, using brick or asphalt block where it had been in use.  

Except that originally they only used red brick, and some alleys originally had yellow brick or other treatments.  I know I called for a change in this to be more historically accurate and they did change, according to this Instagram post.

This image shows yellow brick on the alley, and red brick fronting the sidewalk/apron to the street.

There is an alley off North Capitol SE, where one of the abutting property owners put in (or maintains) historically accurate cobblestones, with a brick track for "carriage wheels."  

Although, if you walk on cobbles, like some streets in Georgetown, it's not comfortable.

Placemaking and retail laneways initiatives.  ("Hidden in Plain Sight: Activating Urban Alleys," MRSC)

-- Living Alleys Toolkit, Austin

For at least 15 years, Melbourne has been reactivating alleys as retail spots.  In the US, larger real estate projects are often using the laneway concept as a way to activate interior spaces and add a fun element to the development.

Sydney, Austrailia

Retail laneways initiatives.   

-- Melbourne's Revitalized Laneways, Gehl Architects

-- Pocket Book of Melbourne Laneways

-- "Australia’s laneways investment is breathing new life into its cities," Monocle

-- Pioneer Square Alleys Design Manual

Revisiting Strip shopping centers as loci for retail innovation

Bill Lindeke of the MinnPost wrote a column, "In praise of Twin Cities strip malls" that gets at why strip shopping centers, cursed by urban revitalization advocates like me (seemingly), actually have the potential to do what Jane Jacobs said old buildings did, "support innovative new uses because rents are low because the building is paid off."

In cities, depending we revitalization advocates saw 1980s urban renewal strip centers as opportunities for multistory buildings with ground floor retail.  As the market changed, that became possible, and centers in Columbia Heights and on H Street NE among others, were converted.

We didn't see these spaces as places of innovation so much.  Just parking fronted spaces that were counter to urban design principles.

Suburban hipness.  With the type, depending on the location, I wrote a couple pieces about this in 2013, "More thoughts on suburban hipness (it's really about commercial hipness generally, not urban vs. suburban)," and "Millennials and suburban hipness and Montgomery County, Maryland," infused by visits to Phoenix and Seattle, and seeing some really interesting retail businesses operating in "un-cool" strip shopping center spaces.  

Spaces of innovation.  And again in 2025, "Place breaking versus place making: Making people places | independent coffee shops, small business spaces, outdoor spaces."  I wrote:

One of the major precepts of Jane Jacobs Life and Death of the Great American City is that cities need "a large stock of old buildings."  

East Ohio Street, Allegheny City, Pittsburgh.

This wasn't because she was a historic preservationist, but because old, mostly paid off buildings were cheaper to rent space from than new buildings ("Big Data Backs Jane Jacobs: Cities Need Old Buildings," Smart Cities Dive, Older, Smaller, Better Measuring how the character of buildings and blocks influences urban vitality, NTHP).

1. Older, mixed-use neighborhoods are more walkable. 
2. Young people love old buildings.
3. Nightlife is most alive on streets with a diverse range of building ages. 
4. Older business districts provide affordable, flexible space for entrepreneurs from all backgrounds. 
5. The creative economy thrives in older, mixed-use neighborhoods.
6. Older, smaller buildings provide space for a strong local economy. 
7. Older commercial and mixed-use districts contain hidden density.  

What she didn't anticipate is that in strong markets, either at the city-wide or sub-district scale, regional, national and international real estate actors would bid up the space and improve it, so that even "old buildings," became the equivalent of flashy and new and not cheap to rent.

Early on when I got involved in commercial district revitalization, I believed that only historic buildings were capable of supporting the kind of innovation that Jacobs wrote about.

But later I came to understand it was more about the building as an envelope.

Points #1 to #7 can be re-written and applied to the strip center.  Maybe not all of them, but some:

1. (old 2) Young people love cool spaces..
2. (old 3) Nightlife is most alive in places with a diverse range of uses, ideally but not required is attractive architecture.. 
3. (old 4) Older strip shopping centers provide affordable, flexible space for entrepreneurs from all backgrounds. 
4. (old 5) The creative economy thrives in low cost real estate.
5. (old 6) Older, smaller buildings provide space for a strong local economy. 
6. (old 7) Older commercial and mixed-use districts contain hidden density--maybe not so much but it can be created.

Still I wouldn't want strip centers in the core of a central city, but they can be useful in the outer city, and in fact can be quite powerful.  In the suburbs specifically, strip centers are known for being home to innovative ethnic restaurants--Tim Carman of the Washington Post and Karon Liu of the Toronto Star have been calling our attention to such places for years.

Magleby's is in the Historic H.T. Reynolds Building in Springville, Utah.  Springville is noteworthy separately for its arts museum, which has promoted the work of local artists for more than a century.  The city positions itself as "Art City" and leans into it by various promotions and urban design interventions.

I was just in a restaurant called Magleby's in an "old" building in Springville, Utah and it rocked, putting a lot of Salt Lake City restaurants to shame--but that space is what you make of it, the building is an envelope and you can use and makeover the space creatively, or not.  But the low cost of entry in a strip center, provided the owner is amenable to proposals from independent businesses, makes it a lot easier to do.

The first strip center:  Urban streets lined by block after block of low scale retail buildings.  As a child, my experience in Detroit was the major arterials were "shopping centers," as they were lined block after block by retail buildings of various sizes.  

There were "centers" within the miles of buildings often at intersections of major roads where more of a "shopping center" or conglomeration developed.  (This happened in Chicago too.)  

The one I remember when I was in elementary school was still corridor strip, but there was a grocer (Packer, then it was bought out by Wrigley), an independent neighborhood "department store" with a focus on apparel, Woolworth's--not Kresge, even though Kresge was headquartered in Detroit, that's where I would buy Matchbox cars, I don't remember if it had a soda fountain, and a branch of Federal's, a regional downscale department store chain by comparison to more upscale chains Hudson's--which still had its downtown store but was developing suburban malls and Crowley's/Demery's (they merged), which was noteworthy for having a downtown store, but also stores in major shopping districts (Wieboldt's did this in Chicago) and suburban town centers like Birmingham and Farmington.  (Oddly, Grosse Pointe was bypassed except for high end apparel, a small company called Himmelhoch's, which went out of business around 1980.)

Partly what made a shopping center maybe was a parking lot behind the liner buildings.

Corridor revitalization.  Now block after block of retail liner buildings is a problem, especially in areas where travel has shifted to the car from transit.  Addressing it is called corridor revitalization.  And it's hard.  

My recommendation has always been to focus on strengthening nodes and as they are successful, they expand outward, hopefully connecting more closely to other nodes on the street.  The community development corporation technical support organization, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, has had a focus on this for decades, Commercial Corridor Resource Hub

The Germantown Business District in better days, when the transit line was a streetcar, not a bus, and the suburbs were still minimally populated.

Another example of a very long corridor and revitalization is Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia ("Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia is finally improving").  

The Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill districts in the outer city thrive.  The inner districts do not.  Part of the problem may be that the main Germantown district once thrived with big department stores, and now those spaces are almost impossible to fill.

Separately, there are initiatives in Philadelphia where locally focused community development groups buy and hold properties in order to keep them accessible to and affordable by independent businesses ("BTMFBA + programs to lease the properties to local businesses | Philadelphia").  Also see "BTMFBA Chronicles: Seattle coffee shop raises money to buy its building."

The car changes the form: Park and Shop centers.  The shopping district at Plymouth and Evergreen in Detroit had parking in the back, while Hudson's malls had parking around the building.  In the 1930s, in response to the rise in car ownership, the "park and shop" was born.  It was often an L type shape with a parking lot in front.  

One of the first was in Cleveland Park DC ("The spot to Park and Shop," Washington Post).

Others that come to mind are in Silver Spring, on Cary Street in Richmond, and one in the Brookland neighborhood of DC.  

Given the strength of the real estate market, the Cleveland Park and Silver Spring examples are more chained up and restaurant focused.  

Brookland's is poorly located and has some management issues and doesn't thrive in the same way as the others.

Richmond's strip center is an integral part of Cary Street/Carytown, which is a particularly great example of a successful urban neighborhood commercial district.

Destroy or Save the Park and Shop.  Urbanists today argue that Park and Shops should be rebuilt as dense buildings, like what we advocated for on H Street NE.  From the H Street Connection to a mixed use development:

I argue that on historic preservation architectural history grounds that it's important to save historic Park and Shops ("Blacktop History," National Council on Public History), but not the 1970s-1990s strip centers.  But something is lost when those sites are converted, the retail space is no longer cheap, and independent businesses get displaced.

Cary Court Park and Shop in Richmond, Virginia.

Ideally there would be programs in place to assist those businesses in transitioning to other spaces, in having them have return rights to the new building with lowered rents, etc.

Revitalization.  In 2001, the Urban Land Institute published Ten Principles for Reinventing America’s Suburban Strips.  Although again as I have said, the various "Ten Principles" ULI publications are equally relevant to cities, even when ostensibly about suburbs.

It's possible to add housing to some.  But these days according to Chain Store Age Magazine, it's a high performing real estate "product type," especially when anchored by a grocery store.  So while it's true that as some suburbs densify (often called "urbanize") strip centers get built over ("The Future of the Strip," ULI), they're providing low cost space and attractive retail amenities keeps many in business.

Drone photo of plazaPOPS urban design interventions in Wexford Heights, Scarborough, at 2020 Lawrence Avenue East. 

In Toronto there have been initiatives to incorporate public space and urban design improvements in these centers because they are vital economically but are "meh" architecturally ("Toronto-area strip malls are foodie havens. Here’s how this project is helping them become places for people, not just cars," Toronto Star, "Messy Cities: The Ballet of the Parking Lot").

While not exactly a secret, strip malls were an underappreciated urban aspect of the city for years. In 2002, former mayor Mel Lastman even said, “Strip plazas have got to go. These things are a holy mess. Their time is over.” 

Yet they’re essential parts of our urban landscape and throughout the Greater Toronto Area have been recognized as great retail expressions of multiculturalism. Cheaper than downtown main streets, small businesses can flourish, especially true in the food scene. Previously ignored strip mall eateries are routinely celebrated, while a place like Ridgeway Plaza in Mississauga, with nearly 100 ethnic food options, has become such a foodie haven it suffers from the strain of so many people visiting. 

Seeing how strip malls, designed sometimes decades ago for motorists, have evolved into vibrant, walkable places on their own has been fascinating. Now the plazaPops project is helping them adapt more formally.

Or, communities can have big revitalization plans, like for the Takoma Crossroads Langley district spanning Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland, and soon to be a stop on the Purple Line light rail, but as Bill Lindeke points out:

Owners of these properties are reluctant to give that up a passive income stream for an expensive, risky investment.

Aerial view, Takoma Langley Crossroads at the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard.  The retail mix is mostly independents, with some chains.

Why should they?  The centers are thriving, with few vacancies, and are full of businesses catering to the Latino population of "East County," even if they don't look pretty, are fronted by parking, car sewers etc.

Although I do believe these districts can be rebuilt, more urbanistically and with housing, especially when paired with rail transit.

The challenge is to maintain the uses and the proprietorship of independent businesses through and after the changes.  

That's one of the reasons wrt this district that I suggested that Montgomery and Prince George's County create a "transportation renewal district" to fund a bi-county community development corporation to buy, hold, and operate properties in the catchment area of the Purple Line, to best mitigate these types of issues in ways that the private sector isn't accustomed to doing.

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

Mitigation.  Ridgeway Plaza, Mississauga, Ontario. Note that Ridgeway is actually a newly constructed shopping strip, less than four years old.

The product type is still being built where it can be successful.  The relatively new Ridgeway Plaza in Mississauga, Ontario, is wildly successful because of its ethnic restaurants ("The suburb that won't sleep," New York Times, "Suburban ethnic enclaves").  But it makes it a destination for which its traffic load and patron volume was never considered.  From the NYT:

But Ridgeway’s unexpected popularity has created problems for Mississauga. The vast plaza attracts crowds at all hours of the day and night, resulting in noise and littering, too much traffic and not enough parking. There have been confrontations and even physical fights; illegal fireworks; and nuisance from vehicles, including street racing.

Such quality-of-life concerns have arisen at the same time that Mississauga’s population has been growing fast with an influx of immigrants — local developments that coincide with a broader souring of public opinion in Canada toward newcomers

When governments sell land always put in clawback provisions

DC sold many school buildings in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly to nonprofit organizations.  The city's building inventory was large because segregation meant duplication of facilities.  Over time, many of these organizations sold the buildings off, to great profit.  But there was no provision in the sales contracts for the DC Public School System to get a portion of the increased sales price.

For example, Wormley School was sold to Georgetown University which eventually sold it to a developer for more than 5x what it paid ("University to Sell Wormley Property," Georgetown Hoya).

Although to be fair, partly they took advantage of new market conditions.  When the property sold first, DC was just about ready to take off in the c. 2000 change of consumer attitudes towards urban living which again favored cities.  

It makes sense then that the building is now condos but DC should have gained more from the transaction ("Apartment in Georgetown’s Wormley School Lists for $2.8 Million," Mansion Global).

Another building sold to the DC Teachers Credit Union, and they had offices there for awhile, has long since been converted to in-demand Capitol Hill condominiums.

Parkland, Florida is dealing with that now.  Decades ago they sold for $850,000 a piece of property to the county school system for an elementary school to be built in their community.  But the school was never built and the school system recently sold the same property for $14 million to the Broward Health hospital system ("Parkland seeks $850,000 refund from school district after land sale to Broward Health," Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel).

Parkland wants their money back.  But they, like DC, didn't put provisions in the contract that the property should revert back to them if never used, or to be paid back the cost of the property if it were to be sold to a third party.

Traditionally, land bequests to governments and nonprofits most often include this provision of giving land with conditions that the property revert back to the original owners if the use changes.  

A D.C. streetcar passes the Douglas Memorial United Methodist Church near the H Street Corridor in Washington on March 7, 2018. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

That's why the United Methodist Church on H Street NE in DC, formerly a "white" church, decided to integrate as the neighborhood changed.  They didn't see a future as a "white church" and wanted to sell the property but the conditions of the bequest made them change course ("This H Street church was a hub of the community in the 1960s, then came the riots. It never thrived again.," Washington Post).

Cy Pres Review.  I am not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt, but in some states, the State Attorney General's office is active in overseeing land sales and other dissolution acts involving nonprofits.  Such sales are supposed to be made with the continuation of the  property or monies still being used by nonprofits.

This is called Cy Pres Doctrine ("An Historical and Empirical Analysis of the Cy-Près Doctrine," University of Louisville School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2023-3) and the funds involved, Cy Pres Funds  In Pennsylvania this is in the news because of the closure of the University of the Arts.  A bunch of buildings were sold off by the bankruptcy court, not necessarily for non profit uses.  And a number of schools agreed to take their students.  

The Moore College of Art, the only independent private school of art in the city, argues it should get the bulk of the money, because it's closest organizationally to what UAS was institutionally ("Who should get the $63M endowment money of UArts? Depends on who you ask," WHYY/NPR, "University of the Arts’ $77 million endowment remains mired in court proceedings two years after the school closed," Philadelphia Inquirer) and New York AGs have been particularly active.

Among others, the AG was involved in the selling of Girard College and the move of the Barnes Institution ("Changing Donor-Imposed Restrictions: Cy Pres and Equitable Deviation," New York Community Trust) from Lower Merion Township to Philadelphia.  

Speculative ventures such as constructing this building without having tenants lined up put Cooper-Union at financial risk ("The Indicator: Cooper Union, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down," ArchDaily).

In New York State, a major case concerned Cooper-Union College, owner of the land under the Chrysler Building, the lease funds free tuition for the school, but the school wanted to start charging tuition because of financial exigency.  

They were allowed to do this, but with strict conditions ("A Second Chance for Cooper Union").

DC's AG hasn't been particularly proactive in these situations ("DC's Source Theater sold: cause for a cy pres review?").  I argued review should have occurred with the sale of the YWCA in Downtown and the Corcoran Gallery--its collection to the National Gallery, its building and art school to George Washington University ("When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review").

The YMCA at Rhode Island and 17th Street NW as another example.  I never got around to writing about a similar experience  with the YMCA in Dupont Circle. They sold their property to a developer and the recreation use at that site was abandoned.

YMCA said they didn't have experience with a facility serving both workers and residents and that they tried their best to increase membership but were unsuccessful ("Downtown YMCA to close amid rising competition from upscale gyms," Post; "Akridge to redevelop YMCA at 1711 Rhode Island as boutique office," Washington Business Journal).  From the Post:

The YMCA approved a deal to sell the hulking, 1970s concrete building to Akridge, a big local developer, for an undisclosed amount. At 100,000 square feet, it’s the YMCA’s biggest facility in the region, and the property, according to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue, has an assessed taxable value of $27.2 million. ...

The National Capital facility was never a typical one for the YMCA. The nonprofit organization traditionally serves neighborhoods, not business districts, and Reese-Hawkins said the money from the sale of the building will boost the organization’s community, after-school and summer programs throughout the region.

She hopes to eventually open another full-service YMCA in the city and is in talks with community leaders to assess the best fit. There are no gyms in the District east of the Anacostia River, and Reese-Hawkins said it is possible that one could land there.

The building that will replace the YMCA.

They never opened another full-service YMCA in DC.

The AG got involved in some cases but didn't meaningfully shape the outcome.  

For me, except DC City Government also lacks the imagination, Corcoran Galley should have been transferred to the city creating its first locally controlled arts museum--the other museums in the city are run by the federal government.  And the Corcoran School of Art and Design should have been merged into UDC ("Should community culture master plans include elements on higher education arts programs?").

With the sale of the YW and the YM the organizations argued that the money received would support their programs generally.  But the sale of these properties came at the expense of the availability of recreational resources made available to residents in the center city, and they had received membership fees and donations for years from patrons of these facilities, making the argument for there being a clear DC citizen interest.  

Both the YW and YM should have been "forced" to put some of that money towards the creation of a new city recreation facility serving those areas--if the city's Department of Parks and Recreation had a clue.  A proactive AG and some consultants could have shifted the dialog.

Parkland and cy pres?  With the Parkland case, I'd argue that the State AG could step in and do a cy pres review, and as part of a settlement, make the City of Parkland whole.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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