Even if the age of sprawl is behind us, the effects of development into exurban and rural areas is with us for a long time. But what do we do to make what's already done better?
We've talked previously about the perils of sprawl
here,
here, and
here. Galina Tahchieva, a planner with Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., gave a presentation on the subject at the
Congress for the New Urbanism convention in Denver. Ruth Walker has the
highlights:
1. Improve connectivity of the streets by imposing a grid on them and looking for ways to connect the dots, and the cul-de-sacs.This is perhaps the most obvious. Cul-de-sacs have come to define sprawl in the same way gridded streets define urban areas. I actually grew up on a
cul-de-sac which might make a person think I'm sympathetic; but in fact it made their absurdity more obvious. In order to get to the library and shopping area 50 meters from my house, I had to walk a mile eventually ending up on a busy arterial with no sidewalk. Small wonder people drove everywhere.
Continue reading "Sprawl Repair" »
George Will is sad. It seems he expected the only Republican in Obama's cabinet not in charge of blowing stuff up (shout-out to Secretary Gates) to be more reliably in favor of conservative principles, like the right to build whatever you want, wherever you want ugly strip malls and McMansions. Unfortunately, Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood, uses words that Will finds depressing like "transformational" and "Portland."
What the WHAT? He writes:
LaHood, however, has been transformed. Indeed, about three bites into
lunch, the T word lands with a thump: He says he has joined a
"transformational" administration: "I think we can change people's
behavior." Government "promoted driving" by building the Interstate
Highway System—"you talk about changing behavior." He says, "People are
getting out of their cars, they are biking to work." High-speed
intercity rail, such as the proposed bullet train connecting Los
Angeles and San Francisco, is "the wave of the future." And then,
predictably, comes the P word: Look, he says, at Portland, Ore.
Continue reading "George Will Defends Sprawl" »
Over the next few months I expect a question will emerge in communities across the country as GM and Chrysler announce they'll cut a total of 2000 dealerships with Ford surely to follow suit in the near future. What do we do with the land they once occupied?
This is a question my town, Gig Harbor Washington, has been wrestling with over the last couple years after the Ford and Chevrolet dealerships closed. You don't realize just how much land these sites take up until you see them closed and the buildings demolished. It's a question the Daily Green attempts to answer in this article outlining the opportunities and problems.
One critical issue is that the closures will almost certainly be concentrated in the suburbs and exurbs. The sites were once attractive for the cheap land and access to eager consumers dependent on cars. But as we've noted before, the days of sprawl are over and it's unlikely the manufacturers will let their more productive urban dealerships go. Unfortunately, many small communities sought out car dealers hungry for the sales tax they provide and now, with already distressed budgets, could be looking at gaping holes in their economy. So the trick will be resisting the easy fix and allowing or even encouraging more sprawling development.
Continue reading "Re-Use of Closed Auto Dealers" »
Infrastructurist has the details on some great news. Americans are driving less, ending a steady climb in vehicle miles traveled since... well forever.

But it brings up an interesting question. Is this really a change in behavior or just a reaction to increase in unemployment and reduction in discretionary trips. Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight fame, takes a stab at digging into the stats. Even though he was wrong about the Oscars, he's right about everything else. He figures:
Continue reading "Why Are Americans Driving Less?" »
The Congress for New Urbanism, commissioned by a group called CEOs for Cities, released the results of a study on how New Urbanist growth strategies pays off economic dividends. If you watch the video, try your best to ignore the awful music, they apparently spent all their money on the research itself.
The study found that the recent push for growth into rural areas has had disastrous results which we've explored here and here. Perhaps most importantly, it finds that returning to development in cities over exurbs, is the key ingredient to solving any number of our nation's most pressing problems. Haven't we all been searching for a silver bullet for climate change, lack of affordable housing, obesity, and excessive personal and public debt?
Continue reading "Healthy Cities Healthy Economy" »