Well, um, not exactly. But three cheers to Cambridge still, for agreeing to allow restaurants to serve food and alcohol at outdoor sidewalk seating on public rights of way, according to a Boston Globe article Coming to Cambridge: Paris on the Charles. The decision is a triumph for enhanced quality of life in public spaces [...]
Archive for May, 2006
‘Paris on the Charles’
May 29, 2006Public vs. Private Space
May 28, 2006I’ve written about the balance between private vs. public space before. Outside of urban America, the emphasis is generally so strongly on private space that our public spaces become poor cousins. It’s why exurbs have lots of McMansions but little pedestrian appeal, and our transportation policies favor the private car over public transit. (In places [...]
Filling the GAP: Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza
May 26, 2006“Today, Brooklyn’s plaza rivals the grandeur of European plazas like the Parisian Etoile where the Arc de Triomphe is located. There is, however, one notable difference: Unlike the great European plazas, Grand Army Plaza is, for the most part, disconnected from the city around it and devoid of human life and activity,” says the New [...]
Stopping Wal-Mart via Eminent Domain?
May 24, 2006The town of Hercules, Calif. is considering using eminent domain to take 17.27 acres away from Wal-Mart, which is planning a store “near an upscale new residential neighborhood next to San Pablo Bay,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
It’s an interesting twist on the recent Supreme Court decision that allowed eminent domain takings for private [...]
Springfield Rezones to Encourage Pedestrian-Friendly Development
May 23, 2006“The City Council has rezoned 55 properties in the Indian Orchard section that supporters hope will lead to the area becoming a shopper- and pedestrian-friendly village,” according to the Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
The idea of changing the business zone is to prevent certain operations “such as an automobile transmission workshop, while promoting less intensive uses like [...]
Canadian Town Backs Pedestrian-Centered Revitalization
May 16, 2006Drayton Valley, Alberta officials and business people are backing a downtown remake that includes “pedestrian friendly streets, storefronts that invite shoppers to come in to browse and buy and a downtown that invites community events while encouraging a family atmosphere,” according to the Western Review.
The plan, developed by McGill University Professor Avi Friedman and a [...]
$250M Mixed-Use, Pedestrian Friendly Development Planned Near K.C.
May 13, 2006“Construction will start in June on the $250 million Park Place, an urban-style, mixed-use community in Leawood, complete with ice rink and luxury hotel,” the Kansas City Star reports. “Several restaurant tenants have already signed, and more retail tenants are expected to be announced soon.”
A focus on pedestrians and entertainment makes the project more than [...]
Better, Not Bigger: What Today’s Homebuyers Really Want
May 9, 2006While developers and policymakers continue to assume that the “American Dream” means ever bigger, more isolated homes in exurban sprawl, a new generation of real American homebuyers wants something else, the New York Times reports in Younger Buyers Want Better, not Bigger.
“Reach Advisors, a market-research firm in Boston, would argue … that there is a [...]
