The city of Ventura, Calif. has declared a one-year moratorium on development along Ventura Boulevard, where Wal-Mart was eyeing a former K-mart site for a new store.
“The moratorium, imposed to give city planners time to draft guidelines for development along the six-lane strip, effectively shelves an application from the retail giant to build one of [...]
Archive for January, 2006
Thinking Outside the (Big) Box
January 29, 2006“French Women Don’t Get Fat”
January 29, 2006There are some interesting tidbits in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, which I recently took out of the library. I’m not sure I buy into everything author Mireille Guiliano put forth; but along with her tips for slow, mindful eating of high-quality foods (which makes a great deal of sense), she also points [...]
Overhauling New York’s Javits Convention Center
January 26, 2006If you’ve ever attended an event at the Javits Center (I’ve gone to numerous), you know what a poorly planned site it is. Besides the silly interior design, which involves going endlessly up and down stairs trying to get to where you’re going, it’s badly positioned in the surrounding neighborhood. Now granted, the surrounding area [...]
Parking Foolishness
January 23, 2006Does it strike anyone else as ridiculous that strip malls adjacent to each other often have parking so separate that big signs warn of imminent towing if you dare leave your car there EVEN WHEN THEIR STORES ARE CLOSED? Such “planning” ensures that a community ends up with more blacktop parking than it needs, taking [...]
Grass, Trees & Gardens, Not Garages & Driveways
January 22, 2006It’s sometimes hard to get through to suburban planning officials, who obsess mostly about “setback” and occasionally “screening,” how critical it is to create a pleasing sense of place and pedestrian-appealing streetscape by NOT having parking lots, driveways and garage doors as the chief features of your streetscape.
It’s why I’m so disappointed with the two [...]
Ikea Traffic Nightmare
January 16, 2006So my husband and I decided to head down to Massachusetts’ first Ikea store today to see what all the fuss is about. And I must say, from a retailing point of view, it’s an amazing store. It’s ENORMOUS – close to 350,000 square feet (in contrast, the big Jordan’s Furniture on the hill in [...]
Mass. Smart Growth Agenda
January 16, 2006Massachusetts lawmakers should provide greater incentives for communities that develop compact housing in downtowns, restore investment in conserving open space and implement a transportation plan that assures a balance between roads and public transit, according to Shared Destinies: A Smart Growth Agenda for Massachusetts, a report issued last month by the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance.
“[S]tories [...]
Fading Enthusiasm For Skywalks
January 15, 2006They seem like a good idea: Covered or enclosed walkways connecting downtown buildings, allowing easy passage between offices and shops when the weather is bad (and even when it’s not). But elevated walkways, not unlike elevated highways, can have unintended negative consequences on a neighborhood. “Instead of drawing additional people and retail to a second [...]
