Archive for revitalization

Back to the future

August 10, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 3 comments

In the Philadelphia area (link via Planetizen), city officials representing older neighbourhoods and inner ring, older suburbs are now working together to promote these communities as great alternatives to far flung, distant suburbs:

They are places that have been long suffering as homebuyers the past few decades have opted for more spacious homes on large lots in new subdivisions on the suburban fringe….

All the Classic Towns – the boroughs of Ambler, Bristol, Collingswood, Doylestown, Haddon Heights, Lansdowne, Media, Riverton and West Chester, along with Philadelphia’s Manayunk and Overbrook Farms neighborhoods – have made significant comeback strides with a variety of revitalization efforts….

Organizers already have worked up a sales pitch that plays off the budget-busting gas situation: If you live in these walkable mixed-use communities with convenient access to public transit, you probably can get rid of at least one car in your driveway.

While planners have been advocating for years a return to older communities as a way to curb suburban sprawl, Seymour said, “I think now with gas prices, the market is finally catching up to those policy objectives.”

And this is happening not just in Philadelphia. Communities around North America with rich and sometimes forgotten histories are now seeking to restore and revitalize boarded up or otherwise dilapidated former-downtowns or industrial areas. Many are creating higher density housing in the process, such as loft apartments in restored older brick warehouses.

Many older neighborhoods in the core cities and suburbs of North America were built around transit 100 years ago. In Vancouver Gordon Price famously calls them the “street car neighbourhoods.” Where the street cars stopped, family-owned retail thrived. Many North American cities have similar histories. As the automobile took over, and suburbanization thrived, street cars disappeared and street car communities often fell on hard times, even becoming rough “inner city” spaces.

But the old spaces are often still there and offer an authenticity as well as an opportunity to return to higher density and walkable living. Apartments can be built above retail if they are not already there from 100 years ago. Neighboring single family housing is often on much smaller lots than in a more recently laid out suburb. This allows people craving even a small backyard along with walkability and transit accessibility the possibility of finding that (see the recent blogosphere discussion on this between Avent, Atrios, and McArdle.)

As in Metro Philadelphia, it may be important for certain civic leaders to promote what these communities offer to families and individuals struggling to deal with the challenges facing the automobile-based sprawl model as gasoline becomes less affordable.

Category: "back to the center", communities, resident attitudes, residential development, revitalization, urban history /

From Suburb to Satellite City

August 7, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 2 comments

Writing in the Globe and Mail, John Bently Mays insists that some suburbs are thriving:

If pundits are going to discuss the future of North American suburbs — and this is surely an excellent time to do so — then they should have in mind a clear picture of the very dynamic phenomenon they are talking about. If the upmarket suburbs of Sacramento are lapsing into desolation, the exurban communities around Toronto appear to be doing everything but.

Although Mays was challenging something Richard Florida wrote about the increased demand for urban core living, Florida responded by clarifying his message:

I do not think we are seeing a decline of the suburbs. What is happening is a move back toward the core by certain affluent groups for whom time, costs, and location matter. This is what Alan Enerhalt calls the “demographic inversion.” … This demographic inversion is but a part – an important part, but just a part – of a much bigger spatial shift, I call the great intensification.

What we’re also seeing is certain suburbs and even some exurbs reviving or creating a more urban core. Municipalities with their own historical districts are seeing demand from residents to live and/or work in these authentic, inspiring places.

While most suburbs by definition export people to jobs in the urban core, some are doing well at generating employment opportunities.  Corporations and governments have generated jobs in the suburbs, and not just back office, service industry positions (although these have been common).  In addition, residents of many suburbs — including immigrants in places like Toronto and Vancouver — have over time been creating their own businesses and have supported others as consumers or workers.

Assuming fuel prices remain high, and individuals continue to value time more than in the past, then some suburbs whether close to urban cores or more distant may evolve into self-contained satellite cities with weaker links to the region’s major metro area.

Some who currently commute will find a similar job closer to home.  Others will move to the evolving satellite city to be closer to their work.  And some will keep their urban core jobs, but be able to tele-commute one or two days per week, or perhaps work in a local branch office occasionally.  All of this will contribute to creating a more self-contained place — not just a space in which to live — where people will be able to reach jobs, schools and amenities on food, bicycle, bus or in less than a 10 minute drive. This will keep them supporting local businesses as well interacting more in their community, building social cohesion, which many suburban spaces lack.

Category: communities, economic development, revitalization, satellite cities, sprawl, Uncategorized, urban history /

Rise of cities, decline of national park visitation

July 22, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 2 comments

Fewer people are visiting America’s national parks, reports the Economist. Instead, the Economist believes more tourists are visiting cities, which have become cool.

This leads to the question of the relationship (if any) between urban revitalization and lower national park patronage.

Indeed, there seems to be a correlation between the cleaning up of cities like New York and the decline in national parks visitation.  The same Economist article states:

Attendance at national parks was not the only thing that peaked between the late 1980s and the early 1990s. In 1991 America’s homicide rate reached 9.8 per 100,000 people. Many cities were known for lawlessness and grot; not surprisingly, holiday-makers were passing them up for greener spots. Then, miraculously, the murder rate began to slide, falling to just 5.5 per 100,000 in 2000. Led by New York, cities spruced themselves up and began to attract more tourists.

Or, did the average age of the population change lowering the interest in camping? Does the typical aging baby boomer want a thermarest-and-sleeping-bag-on-a-tent-floor or a 4 star hotel room? The Economist didn’t suggest this, but I can’t help but think it’s a driving factor behind lower national park visitation and increased vacations in cities.

But maybe camping and national park visits will gradually rise again.  Here’s why:

  • People feeling less affluent will look for less expensive vacations.  Camping is cheaper than a hotel room in places like New York or Boston or San Francisco.
  • Although gasoline prices are rising, driving to a national park or state park will typically be cheaper than flying to a city.
  • As more people live in dense urban areas rather than the suburbs, then getting away to wilder areas may become more popular (especially given families feeling financially strained).  Not for everyone, but for just enough to reverse the tide.
  • Blackberries and mobile devices will soon work almost everywhere, if they don’t already.  And solar-powered battery rechargers now work quite well for small devices.
    •  Some of the appeal of urban vacations has no doubt been the ability to remain in touch with work while on vacation.
      While I can see a fad of “unplugging” on the horizon in which people will vacation without remaining connected, it’s not here yet and many will never feel comfortable and able to relax unless they know that all is well at home.

Vacations of the future may well be about “live” events and experiences — some of these will be found in cities, others in national parks, state parks and wilderness areas.  Some will be less expensive for those needing to live within their means.

Watching the stars from a mountain meadow is priceless yet affordable.

Category: revitalization, Uncategorized, urban history, urban lifestyles /

End of the Megalopolis?

June 27, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 5 comments

What if the costs of operating an automobile permanently reach or exceed $10 per gallon and alternative fuels cannot offer any savings just an alternative?

Then, we may see the end of the Megalopolis — although not the end of the mega-region.

On CBC’s The National Wednesday night a person interviewed (James Kunstler, I believe) in Kelly Crowe’s second story suggested that among the consequences for urban life is that cities will become more compact and many people will move to smaller cities.

He described how people will seek urban life on a more personal, human scale where they have access to everything they need in close proximity — homes, jobs, schools, recreation, entertainment, shopping, etc. Fuel consumption would therefore drop dramatically.

If this happens, it would mean the gradual emptying of outer suburbs and exurbs over the next 10-20 years.

By my read, a consequence would be that today’s mega-regions, as defined in Richard Florida’s work, would probably remain much the same. But people would be clustered in cities — some big, some small some medium sized — with large expanses of non-urban space in between, space that used to be housing or malls.

So, Florida’s famous shot of North America at night from which he developed the mega region concept will change. Today, the continuous concentrations of light roughly correspond to continuous interconnected economic regions. In the future, there will be big balls of light and little ones more resembling a connect the dots puzzle.

Maybe — as a commenter suggested in my previous post – the empty space in between can be turned back into farmland to supply more food locally.

Category: "back to the center", clusters, planning policy, residential development, revitalization, sprawl, urban history /

The end of the car-tropolis?

June 25, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 4 comments

Will the car-tropolis come to an end?  Or will America’s suburban style of living survive peak oil.  A few weeks ago I suggested that current gasoline prices will not bring down American suburbia.  I still believe this.   At current prices in the US, people could buy more fuel efficient vehicles and continue the lifestyle — if they want to do so.

But, what happens if gasoline costs $10 a gallon by 2015?  And alternative fuels like electricity are no cheaper?

To be sure, people and cities will have to find ways to function without relying on one-person-one-vehicle automobile travel.   This will mean profound changes to typical urban ways of life.

On CBC’s The National Wednesday night a person interviewed (James Kunstler, I think) in Kelly Crowe’s second story suggested two important consequences for cities:

First.  That cities will become more compact.  Second, that many people will move to smaller cities.  I’ll extrapolate on the first issue here.  And the second in a subsequent post.

So, cities will become more compact, with residents living closer together.  Actually, this means that cities capable of offering higher density living will prosper and others will languish. 

Metropolitan areas with geographic constraints will likely fare well, as most already have a higher density of living and can offer a compact and low-gasoline-consumption life to their residents.

A century ago sprawl wasn’t practical so people lived closer together.  Cities with older origins and a decent sized compact residential core, even if lower density sprawl eventually prevailed, will have an opportunity to remake themselves.  Indeed the business and residents of many such cities are already doing this in such places as Detroit.

The existing residents and new comers in these cities will have to accept more apartment buildings and attached homes than currently exist.  There will be political battles.  There will also be new opportunities — without being in the automobile silo, people will potentially talk to each other more.  More people means more amenities close by from restaurants to all variety of shopping to recreational options.

The car-tropolis took decades to create and will take decades to dismantle if automobile fuel (of whatever variety) continues to rise in price.  It’s end will be more gradual than many doomsayers are predicting — in part because many people will feel trapped in their suburban homes by their mortgages being higher than house value.

Category: "back to the center", residential development, revitalization, sprawl, urban history, urban lifestyles /

Roads: not just for cars anymore

June 22, 2008 / Wendy Waters / No comments

 Using roads only for motor vehicles is wasteful.  As gasoline prices reach record highs and increasing numbers of North Americans embrace higher density living, allowing roads to be more than conduits for cars needs greater consideration.

Special events would be a place to start.

Today (Sunday) in North Portland an entire region of the city is going “car free” allowing pedestrians and cyclists to monopolize the streets. 150 blocks will be closed to motor vehicle traffic for six hours. Residents and visitors are expected to mingle, enjoy free events in the parks such as yoga classes, and enjoy the fresh air.  Portland’s event is modeled after one in Bogota where 2 million people come out on car free day.

I doubt that many will enjoy Portland’s day, in part because I doubt the combination of public transit and the roads could get that many people to the area.  But I expect it will be popular nonetheless and if it becomes an annual event — or even more frequent — it would draw more people each time.

Last weekend Vancouver had four car-free festivals in the city, each closing about an 8 block long stretch of a commercial/retail street. The traffic jams in the blocks around some of these areas were unbelievable — particularly the one in my neighborhood.  Many people clearly drove to car free events.  But, the events were packed.  There would definitely be popular interest in having a whole community car free.

We also can’t forget the spontaneous ones in which jubilant citizens take over the streets. In Germany — and probably much of Europe — soccer fans are joining together in the streets to watch and celebrate their team’s performances during the Euro 2008 soccer championships.

Perhaps these car free events will lead more city governments and residents to consider permanently closing some streets, making them pedestrian malls.  Or, if not every day, then maybe every Saturday or Sunday.  Allow the restaurants and cafes to add seating, creating a European-like sidewalk cafe culture.   Allow other retail and food sales to happen on the street.  And leave space for buskers.

Roads: lets see them put to use for community building and turn some cities from car-tropolis into places for people.

Category: communities, ecological issues, planning policy, public spaces, revitalization, transportation, urban lifestyles /

Costing out urban vs suburban living

April 30, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 2 comments

A few years ago when a real estate marketing company was promoting a downtown Vancouver condo project, they argued that a couple who could forgo automobile ownership would save the equivalent per year in expenses that would allow for an additional $100,000 worth of a mortgage. That is, skip auto ownership and you could afford to spend say $400,000 on your home instead of $300,000, which would by you more space or amenities downtown. Cars cost that much to household budgets.

Going unspoken were the intangible benefits of being close to places of work and play, saving time and allowing a richer life.

Now NPR’s Marketplace (via Planetizen) is now reporting that a tight economy may push more people to recognize the benefits of living closer to work and other urban amenities. Reporter Stacey Vanek-Smith summarizes some findings of a recent report by The Environmental and Energy Study Institute and the Urban Land Institute:

In compact cities like Portland, Ore., people spend about 10 percent of their discretionary incomes on transportation. In sprawling metropolises like L.A. and Atlanta, it’s more like 35 percent and climbing thanks to rising gas prices. Policy Analyst Jan Mueller says that could make city living look a lot more affordable.

It would be interesting if individuals, couples and families trying to decide where to live could fully cost their choices in any given metro area, and suburb or inner city of that place. In addition to the objective monetary costs of once choice versus another other factors could be given a value. For example, having more (or less) time to spend with family could be given a score — subject to the values and preferences of the individual and taking into account happiness studies and other measures. Similarly, having free time along with the opportunity to pursue other passions or hang out with friends, or attend concerts would also be given a value.

In tough times when everyone is looking to obtain more with less, if such a calculus existed (and maybe it does) perhaps more people would consider having a smaller home but more disposable income and time.

Addendum: Gordon Price penned an article on the subject of commute costs and real estate prices at the same time as I wrote this one.  His much more eloquent discussion can be found here.

Category: downtowns, resident attitudes, residential development, revitalization, sprawl, urban lifestyles /

Interconnecting international cities by rail

March 10, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 10 comments

Travel between  regional urban centres has become more challenging in recent years.  Barriers include high gasoline prices and road congestion, reduced rail options and increasingly cumbersome air travel due to deathly slow security procedures.  These transportation barriers may need a re-think by governments at different levels in the near future.  Some background:

Ryan Avent and Richard Florida have been musing about the importance of interconnected cities to super-regional economic well being.  Avent notes how Philadelphia undergoing a renaissance as an affordable yet cool overflow area for people and business that might want to be connected to New York, but cannot afford it.

Avent:

 For Philly, part of the reason is its presence in an area with great market potential. The city has excellent connections to other booming cities, which makes it a natural place for firms and people to locate. It also benefits from being one of the low cost options in its neighborhood. Need a full service city close to the northeast action and can’t afford New York? Head to Philadelphia.

The Rust Belt has plenty of capable cities, but they’re a lot farther apart than the ones in the northeast.  … New York to Washington is only 200 miles, between which is a lot of stuff. Chicago to Detroit is closer to 300 miles, and there’s a lot less in between, because so much of the Rust Belt urban geography is clustered along the lake shore. In general, the Rust Belt is a much looser and poorer version of the northeast….

To rejuvenate the Rust Belt economy, then, governments have to find ways to allow their citizens to punch above their weight. That has to mean improved connections within and across Rust Belt cities. Deep, connected pools of human capital fuel the economy of the northeast, and the midwest has to try to marshal and mobilize its resources by moving them closer together.

Florida adds the comment that decades ago, many cities in the “rust belt” northern mid west were more connected than they are today.  People travelled by rail, sometimes overnight, to do business in another city the next day.   He also mentioned the Toronto-Buffalo megalopolis, an economic region with a troublesome international border to navigate if citizens and businesses on both sides of the border are to take full advantage of their mutual proximity.

Seattle and Vancouver  and even stretching into Portland face similar challenges.  Montreal and Boston could perhaps mutually reinforce each other in certain clusters, if travel were easier.

Rail seems to be a solution.  Even on conventional tracks rather than new “high speed” technology, better use of trains seems like an obvious way to better connect people and commerce (and non-profits and really any type of organization) in different cities.

First, train travel doesn’t need the level of security screening that airline travel now does.  It can take 90 minutes+ to go through the combination of checking in and security screening at some US airports.  For a short hop flight, this is ridiculous.  To fly from Canada to the US, you need to add time for the customs and immigration screen too.  The flight from Vancouver to Seattle takes about 45 minutes the rest of the procedure about 90 minutes, for a 2.5 to 3 hour epic (making it quicker to drive — if not for the border line up).

Second, with new wireless technology many people can be productive on the train ride if they so choose.  Cell phone conversations are allowed, and I’m sure the technology exists to offer internet connections during at least some of the journey.

Finally, on international train routes crossing the US-Canada border, customs and immigration procedures could be carried out for passengers while on board the train.  On the way to the border, an immigration screen could take place with individuals not acceptable to enter the other country left behind during a brief stop at the border.  During the rest of the journey customs officials could do their inspections of individuals and their luggage.  A version of this is done now on the Amtrack between Seattle and Vancouver.  But it could be even faster.   This way, you could hop on a train in Vancouver at say 7 AM, it would arrive in downtown Seattle at around 9 AM, and all border formalities would be carried out en route.

Similar for a trip from Buffalo or Rochester to Toronto.  Or Montreal to Boston.
In fact, trains could have sealed cars for Nexus pass holders (people pre-screened by US and Canadian customs and immigration services to cross the border without inspection).  This would reduce requirements for immigration and customs work and allow individuals with business ties faster, less intrusive travel.

In some parts of North America, for citizens of certain cities to “pull more than their economic weight” will require better cross-border connections to nearby big cities on the other side of the border.  Rail and train travel may be the solution.

Category: economic development, revitalization, transportation /

New playground as community anchor

February 24, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 3 comments

Like many public spaces in East Vancouver, the park by our house used to look tired — exhausted, in fact.  Some playground equipment became so dilapidated, it posed a hazard and neighbors asked the city to remove it.  Other plastic slides had more endurance (does plastic ever break down?), and children belonging to families living right near the park enjoyed it as a quick playground fix when there was not time to go elsewhere.  The entrance sign and bathroom were covered in graffiti.  Drunks and drug dealers could be found under the larger trees.

Then, a renaissance.

After 5 years of lobbying, a small group of neighbors got a full park renovation into the city capital budget.  Half a million dollars later, there’s a new park — and spectacular modern playground.

Suddenly, the park and playground are packed — all day long — unless it’s raining.  Daycares, families, children with nannies are there, enjoying the six slides, multiple climbing aparatus, sand box, mosaic stones and natural boulders and logs to jump and climb.  Picnic tables abound, offering spots for a snack or to sip a juice box.

There’s a stroller jam along the edge of the playground as everyone walks here.   A few trikes and bikes-with-training wheels are there too.

Where did all these children and families come from, I wonder.  Certainly, there are some familiar faces from other toddler activities nearby.  But the majority of these people I’ve never seen before.  From chatting, I learn that most live within 6-8 blocks, some even closer having moved in recently.  Most kids playing are under age 5, while the parents seem to range in age from early 20s to early 40s — part of the urban baby boom that seems to be happening.

Suddenly this playground has become “the” neighborhood spot.  It allows parents to meet and chat informally while the kids play — share parenting tips, discuss pre-school options or daycare possibilities.

Dozens of laughing, shreking children have pushed the last of the drunks and drug dealers somewhere else.

A new playground in a tired park won’t revitalize or anchor every neighborhood — but in one with lots of children and a baby boom, it might.  It certainly helps to reinforce and build community — and allows the community to take back public spaces from less desirable elements.

Category: communities, crime reduction, demographic stats, public spaces, revitalization, urban families /

Is this the Obama city plan?

February 19, 2008 / Wendy Waters / No comments

Channel surfing I stumbled across Obama’s speech tonight right when he got to the subject of cities. The jist of what he said was:

  • America is spending $9 Billion per month in Iraq
  • Instead, we could take this money and (re)-build roads, bridges, and other infrastructure
  • We could law more broadband lines
  • …

So, is Obama advocating a New Deal style investment in America’s cities?

Because, the US is spending $9 Billion / Month that the national treasury does not have. Stopping the war and bringing troops home will not suddenly make $9 Billion/Month available — it will still have to be borrowed.

Yet, the previous administration was willing to “invest” this much in stabilizing Iraq, feeling that such a venture was in the best interests of the country or the “US Empire” if you will.

The long term re-vitalization of the American Empire might in fact require the same level of spending, at home, on cities.

Update: Feb 20 – from CEOs for Cities:

Maybe it’s time for urban leaders to change the frame and change the way they talk about cities. Maybe it’s time that we offer up cities as solutions to the problems voters identify with rather than as the problem (that, frankly, voters don’t identify with)?

I’ve had the opportunity to be in direct and routine contact over the past five weeks with voters who have questions and advice on issues and strategies in these campaigns. In hundreds of calls from voters, not one — not one — has asked about cities.

For someone like me who is in the business of selling cities, I could take this as a real disappointment. Or I can take it as an opportunity to reframe the way we talk about cities to make them more relevant to voters.

…

Isn’t the economy an urban issue? Aren’t good jobs an urban issue? What about a new energy policy? Isn’t that an urban issue? Isn’t health care an urban issue? Isn’t minimum wage an urban issue? Aren’t early childhood education and schools urban issues?

Category: economic development, national politics, revitalization, transportation /
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