How Will the Suburbs Redevelop?→

Nathaniel M. Hood, writing for Streets.mn:

“There is a small war going on in America’s second-ring suburbs.

As many places cautiously emerge out of the housing recession, the uptick in new development has been at odds with concerned citizens, elected officials, developers and long-range community plans. Aging suburbia is going through an identity crisis. The only word that comes to mind: bipolar.

To best describe what is going on countrywide, I’m going to use an example in my backyard: the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka (not the lake). It’s a well-to-do middle-class community that has expensive, moderate, and cheap suburban living. As far as suburbs go, it has a surprising range of housing price points.”

Much to learn we still have… This is just the beginning! We need to reinvent downtown development. Odd that old people are holding back good redevelopment.

Zombie Suburbs→

Alana Semuels, reporting for the Altantic:

Alana Semeuls

“There are hundreds of zombie subdivisions like this one scattered across the country. They’re one of the most visible reminders of the housing boom and bust, planned and paved in the heady days where it seemed that everybody wanted a home in the suburbs, and could afford it, too. But when the economy tanked, many of the developers behind these subdivisions went belly-up, and construction stopped. In some cases, a few people have moved into homes in these half-built subdivisions, requiring services to be delivered there. In others, the land is empty, except for roads, sidewalks, and the few street signs that haven’t been stolen yet. In some counties in the West, anywhere from 15 to 33 percent of all subdivision lots are vacant, according to the Sonoran Institute.

”Since the post-2007 real estate bust, which hit many parts of the region severely, eroding subdivision roads now slice through farmland and open space, and ‘spec’ houses stand alone amid many rural and suburban landscapes,” author Jim Holway wrote in a report by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy about zombie subdivisions. “Without correction, they will continue to weaken fiscal health, property values and quality of life in affected communities.””

Reckless we are in development of land. Matters are worse. Bankrupt we are.

Bigger than Keystone XL: Enbridge Sandpiper→

 Ron Meador, writing for MinnPost:

“Enbridge will proceed to carry, on average, 880,000 barrels of heavy crude oil per day — and potentially higher volumes of lighter grades — from the tar-sands mines of Alberta to the docks and pipeline interconnections at Superior, Wisconsin.

That’s actually a bit more than the design capacity of 830,000 barrels per day for Keystone XL, which would carry oil from the Alberta tar sands and the Bakken oil patch in North Dakota to refineries mostly in the Gulf Coast region.”

Dave Shaffer, Star Tribune, Enbridge Files to Replace Problem Pipeline in Minnesota:

“Enbridge decided to replace Line 3 rather than repair the 34-inch-diameter pipe because that would require digging in about 900 places where tests revealed problems. The pipeline suffers from corrosion because the protective tape on the steel has not held up, Little said.

The project is expected to face opposition from environmental groups, including climate activists who are fighting pipelines like TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL in western states as a way to slow development of Alberta’s tar sands.

“It traverses some of the most important lake country, aquifers and water resources in Minnesota,” said Richard Smith, president of the Friends of the Headwaters, an environmental group based in Park Rapids that wants the Sandpiper and Line 3 to avoid the headwaters of the Mississippi River. “That is why we have advocated a different route.””

Adding capacity. Walking away from the existing Line 3. Matters are worse.

The Status of the Rural Creative Class →

Richard Florida, reporting for CityLab:

USDA

“Two kinds of rural counties are experiencing growth, according to Wojan’s analysis. The first are nonmetro creative class counties close to major metros. The second are rural creative class counties that are home to colleges and universities, which are themselves knowledge economy hubs. This proximity effect is likely to become more important, as larger metros and knowledge economy hubs play an increasingly important role in driving economic growth across the nation. What may be happening: The Internet is enabling creative-class workers to stretch the boundaries of their commuting sheds and locate on the rural periphery of major metros, far enough to work from countrified and comfortable home offices, but close enough to come in for meetings.”

Through the Force, things you will see. Other places. The future…the past. Old friends long gone.

Waterfront Development→

Gracy Olmstead, reporting for the American Conservative:

Jonas Jensen / Shutterstock

“Changes, even good changes, have consequences. Waterfront projects—be they in wealthy, well-kept communities or in run-down spaces—need a sense of scale and structure in order to foster beneficial growth.

When I wrote about Alexandria’s waterfront project, New Urbanists Peter Katz and Philip Bess both offered a wealth of ideas and tips for excellent, human-scale waterfront development. There were a lot of things we discussed that I simply didn’t have room for in my story—so here are a few “bonus” comments from the two men. They explained five specific ways to help make a waterfront a good New Urbanist space...”

Blind we are, if the benefits of waterfront places we could not see.

Why Minneapolis Has Beautiful Bike Freeways→

Heather Smith, writing for Grist:

Heather Smith

“I had been biking around Minneapolis for several days before I realized what was missing. It was a pleasant city, even though I was lost a lot, because most of the bike routes have very tiny signs that are hard to read, if they have signs at all. At night the bike paths were so dark that I worried I might not see an obstacle in the road, even with my headlight on, and I got even more lost, until I just gave up and biked very slowly with my phone in one hand, watching the blue dot that was myself on the map to make sure that I didn’t drift off the path, fall off my bike, and get eaten by bears. Not that there are any bears in Minneapolis.

But none of that mattered, really. Here was the thing that was missing for the first time since I became a bicycle commuter: fear.”

Hmm. In the end, people against bikes and public transit are those who follow the dark side.

Poverty Moving to the Suburbs→

Reihan Salam, writing for Slate:

Jim Rees, Flickr

“You might be wondering why poor families are moving to the suburbs in large numbers—the number of suburban poor grew more than twice as quickly as the number of urban poor between 2000 and 2011—if they are such hard places for poor people to get ahead. Part of it is that as middle- and high-income households moved to the suburbs, the low-wage workers who look after their children had little choice but to follow. Then there is the fact that as America’s most productive cities experience a revival, gentrification is displacing low-income families to outlying neighborhoods and towns.

Before we can understand what makes some suburbs so miserable, we first have to understand what makes others succeed. The most successful suburban neighborhoods fall into two categories. First, there are the dense and walkable ones that, like the most successful urban neighborhoods, have town centers that give local residents easy access to retail and employment opportunities. These neighborhoods generally include a mix of single-family homes and apartment buildings, which allows for different kinds of families and adults at different stages of life to share in the same local amenities. The problem with these urban suburbs, as Christopher Leinberger recounts in his 2009 book The Option of Urbanism, is that there are so few of them, and this scarcity fuels the same kind of gentrification that is driving poor people out of successful cities.”

Density matters, ... Look at the suburbs. Judge them by walkability, do you? Save them you can't. 

Urban Walkability→

Nyla Hughes, writing for the Great Lakes Echo:

“Despite recent economic challenges, Detroit’s future as a walkable city is promising, according to a recent study by George Washington University.

Significant improvement is expected due to the investment in 40 office, retail, and residential structures by Quicken Loans, according to the study by Chris Leinberger and Patrick Lynch at the university’s school of business. Also, Detroit’s suburbs of Ann Arbor, Ferndale, Royal Oak, and Birmingham are making strides in walkable urbanism.”

Michigan Municipal League; Traverse City, Michigan: 

Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros

Quantify must your amenity be before cherish it you can.

Alleyways become Pathways→

Eric Peterson, writing for Elevation DC:

“Most of Denver’s 4,000 alleys have been paved, and there are plans to pave the remaining 150 unimproved alleys by 2016. But the alleys are home to tens of thousands of dumpsters, which in turn attract illegal dumping, which in turn means plenty of scavenging.

But change is afoot. Last fall, the Rialto Cafe organized Brewer’s Alley, a beer-tasting event, in the alley behind the restaurant. Several plans are in the works to activate downtown alleys...”

somenametoforget

Garrett Coakley

[You] I can’t believe it. [Me] That is why you fail.

Classic Charles Marohn Articles→

Quantification is the path to the light side. Information leads to action. Action leads to change. Change leads to Strong Towns.

Green Up Cities→

Henry Grabar, reporting for Salon:

“When Bill Drayton looks at New York, he sees a tremendous missed opportunity. The structural skeleton of this metropolis, as in other American cities of its age, is the hollow block: a group of homes, row houses or low multi-family buildings grouped around an open middle space. Former New York City Mayor Robert Wagner once estimated that 60 percent of the city’s 3,000+ blocks were “hollow.”

Drayton would like to see every one of those hollows transformed into a private park for surrounding residents. Each core is nearly an acre and a half — twice the size of a playground at an NYC primary school; one-and-a-half times the size of the median NYC park. As an open expanse of grass beneath great trees, a shared backyard would be large enough for soccer games, picnics and barbecues, but secured from the surrounding city by the walls of neighbors. A checkerboard of private backyards is, he believes, a squandered resource.

In cities where large parks are few and far between, the future of parkland is right in front of us (or behind us, as it were): thousands of shared parks, playgrounds for the city’s children, meeting places for its adults, and crucibles for building community ties.”

You will know the good from the bad when you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and green redevelopment, never for destruction.

How to Elevate the Twin Cities→

Jay Walljasper, writing for MinnPost:

“As to improving life for those who are struggling economically, Penalosa recommends: “There is nothing that government could do that would have a higher impact on middle-class families than to enable them to switch from two cars to one, and for poor families to switch from one to none.” In a region like Minneapolis-St. Paul, he says, two-car suburban families typically spend 27 percent of their income on transportation.”

Jeremiah Peterson

Yes, a city's strength flows from public transportation. But beware of the dark side. Sprawl, suburbia, lack of transportation options; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did most cities in North America.

Mimicking Nature: Fish Passage Around Dams→

Rebecca Kessler, writing for Yale Environment 360:

“In North America, a few nature-like fishways were completed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the approach has gradually gained popularity since, particularly in New England, the Pacific Northwest, Minnesota, and parts of Canada. Nature-like fishways — which also go by names like “roughened channels” and “stream-like fishways” — are catching on elsewhere, too, including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. ”

Sarrancolin Dam on France's Neste River (Photo credit: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department)

Size matters. Look at this, Judge the fish passage by hydrology, do you? 

Placemaking in Indy→

Ken Benfiled, writing 'The coolest urban trail you are likely to see' in his blog:

“Something special is happening in Indianapolis, and it’s transforming neighborhoods. As I wrote in People Habitat, revitalization when done well is almost unparalleled in its ability to boost the “triple bottom line” of sustainability: a healthy environment, a healthy economy, and a healthy and equitable social fabric. The good news, of course, is that, after decades of varying degrees of disinvestment, downtowns and inner cities are coming back, albeit at different paces in different markets and sometimes in new forms that differ from the old. ”

Indyculturaltrail.org

Redevelopment is a natural part of development. Rejoice for those around you who transform our places into the beautiful. 

Vacant Lots as Green Infrastructure→

Dave Levitan, writing for Conservation Magazine:

“If lots could be engineered to actually hold excess water instead of discharging it into the system, that’s a big deal: In Cleveland alone, there are 28,000 vacant lots. Other cities have similar issues (see: Detroit), and there is an undeniable appeal in turning what most consider an eyesore, a problem to be solved, into a solution for an apparently unrelated problem.”

Shuster WD, Dadio S, Drohan P, et al (2014). Residential demolition and its impact on vacant lot hydrology: Implications for the management of stormwater and sewer system overflows, Landscape and Urban Planning, 125 (2014) 48-56.

Flickr/habeebee

Happens to every lot sometimes this does. Use them, we must.

Is white--or green--the new black in cities?→

Cheryl Dybas, writing for NSF Discoveries:

“How well some of these adaptation technologies, including so-called “cool roofs”—white roofs, green (or garden-planted) roofs and hybrids—work, and how they perform in various locations “has been a big unknown,” says Georgescu.

No one-size-fits-all

The scientists suggest that planning and design choices—and where they will be implemented—should be considered in efforts to mitigate climate change and cities’ growth. Counteracting “urban climate change,” Georgescu says, “depends on specific geographic factors that need to be considered.”

lbl.gov

Place matters.

What Does a Sustainable Future Actually Look Like?→

Todd Reubold, writing for Ensia:

“Ask a hundred people if they’re interested in living in a “more sustainable world” and I bet the vast majority would respond, “Yes.” The trouble is, they’d probably all have a different idea in their heads of what that meant. We need to start talking about a sustainable future in specifics. Sustainability over what time frame? Where? For whom? ”

Sustainability is a goal -- a thing to continue to strive for, and as such it is a journey. Are we willing to live with the needs of future generations in mind or not? Should we save North Dakota oil for future generations and use less oil today? Today we are trying to pump it out as fast as we can (at the expense of wasting natural gas). Or should we be oblivious and uncaring for those that have yet to be? It would appear that we almost always say that it is up to future generations to live with the benefits, overexploitation, and pollution that they inherit. 

NPR Story on ND natural gas

If Biodiversity Rose, Would Anybody Notice?→

Conservation Magazine:

“Many people say they’d like to see more biodiversity in their city parks and gardens. But a study suggests that when new species do appear, urbanites remain oblivious to the improvements.

The researchers conducted their experiments at 14 public gardens in Paris, each roughly 1 hectare. In some of the gardens, the team took steps to increase biodiversity such as turning lawns into flowerbeds, sowing seeds, planting starflower to draw pollinators, encouraging the growth of plants that support butterflies, and adding nest boxes for birds.

The researchers then surveyed the gardens to see if biodiversity had actually improved. They recorded bird sightings and sounds, captured butterflies, and took pictures of flowers. The team also interviewed 1,116 people who regularly visited the gardens to find out whether they valued biodiversity and had noticed the changes.”

If one person benefits, then the cost-benefit is worth it.

When Pedestrians Get Mixed Signals→

Tom Vanderbiltfeb, writing in the New York Times:

“If tough love will not make pedestrians safer, what will? The answer is: better walking infrastructure, slower car speeds and more pedestrians. But it’s easier to write off the problem as one of jaywalkers.

Nowadays, the word connotes an amorphous urban nuisance. In fact, the term once referred to country bumpkins (“jays”), who came to the city and perambulated in a way that amused and exasperated savvy urban bipeds. As the historian Peter Norton has documented, the word was then overhauled in the early part of the 20th century. A coalition of pro-automobile interests Mr. Norton calls “motordom” succeeded in shifting the focus of street safety from curbing the actions of rogue drivers to curbing rogue walkers. The pedestrian pushback was shortlived: An attempt to popularize the term “jay driver” was left behind in a cloud of exhaust.

Sure, we may call an errant driver, per the comedian George Carlin, an “idiot” or a “maniac,” but there is no word to tar an entire class of negligent motorists. This is because of the extent to which driving has been normalized for most Americans: We constantly see the world through what has been called the “windshield view.”

Those humans in Los Angeles who began walking a second or two after the light was blinking were, after all, violating the “Vehicle Code.” Note that cars, apparently, do not violate a “Human Code.””

A safe pedestrian tipping point is based on the number of pedestrians -- a feedback loop.

Biodiversity can flourish on an urban planet→

Madhusudan Katti, writing for the Conversation:

“Mention the word biodiversity to a city dweller and images of remote natural beauty will probably come to mind – not an empty car park around the corner. Wildlife, we think, should be found in wild places, or confined to sanctuaries and national parks. But research shows that cities can in fact support biodiversity and this can have major implications for conservation efforts.”

City dwellers can also help by restoring shards of habitat near their homes.